Of Light and Dark
by Soaran
Summary: They say ignorance is bliss, such is true for a race that has lived hidden above the clouds of Hyrule. Only when one is forced to the ground below does she learn of a plan to destroy them. Now with Link helping her, will their combined force be enough to
1. Fallen

They say ignorance is bliss, such is true for a race that has lived hidden above the clouds of Hyrule. Only when one is forced to the ground below does she learn of a plan to destroy them. Now with Link helping her, will their combined force be enough to save her race from evil's grasp?

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  It was a beautiful day above the clouds. The sun shone brightly upon their creamy white tops, the Light Soarans lived for days like this, when the clouds were so firm you could walk upon their tops without worrying about falling through soft patches. The Light Soarans prided themselves with being secluded, not knowing what lay below the clouds. True, there were stories of early adventurers that had wandered below and found a race that had looked quite like them, only wingless, but these were regarded merely as fairy tales and myths, suitable only for small children that were unable to sleep at night.

  Today most of the Light Soarans were enjoying the sunny day, leisurely spending their time chatting with one another, practicing their skills, and simply lazing about. Today was a day to simply enjoy and be happy, not worrying about anything was the attitude shared by the villagers that day.

  All accept for one.

  Zyte cursed herself as she maneuvered around a particularly large puff of cloud.

  *Why? Why did I chose this day to sleep in?* she thought, *I'm going to be so late for the sword ceremony!* The other students already picked on her because of her different color eyes and choice of clothing, and now this. Normally, Light Soaran's eyes were hazel, but Zyte's were a bright medium blue, something the other students at the training school Zyte attended were quick to notice. And then there were her clothes, most male Light Soaran's chose to wear long pants and long sleeved shirts, while the girls chose to wear dresses and skirts, and they were always colors of the sky, blues and whites, some even wore the dark blacks and grays of storm clouds. Though everyone wore leather boots or shoes, most of them were made rather thin. Zyte, on the other hand, wore a bright, forest green tunic with pure white leggings and white sleeves that covered her limbs. Her boots had been made with thicker leather, which suited her fine, as they were perfect for mining the pyre crystals that nestled in the clouds where fire sometimes appeared into the sky. For this reason she also wore leather gauntlets on her hands, well, for that reason and that they helped her keep a grip on the practice swords they used. Her choice of clothes suited the warrior class better anyway, tunics allowed a less restricted range of movement, something that could mean the difference between life and death in battle. And yet the way of the sword was a dying art, few people chose to learn it nowadays, and of those few even less were female. Women were never prevented from learning the way of the swordsman, but they weren't exactly encouraged either. Zyte herself was one of only two other girls in this year's class, and she had a feeling that the other girls were there only to ogle the boys.

  Zyte's forehead creased as she remembered why she chose this particular color. It had happened ten years ago, when she was five. She had left her mother's side to run to her father, who had just returned home. Just before she had reached him, however, she had fallen through a soft spot in the cloud. She had not known how to fly then, and had plummeted through the cloud. Her father had gone streaming after her, and had caught her before she had passed completely through, but she had fallen far enough to catch a glimpse of trees below. These trees differed from the ones above the clouds. These had leaves of bright green, all of the Lecan trees above that grew above the clouds had pale white leaves. This at first had startled her, but then the more she thought of it, the more she liked the color. She had begged her mother to make her clothes that color, and her mother, though skeptical, had agreed, even though she included some of the white she had previously worn in the new outfit. Zyte was startled to find tears stinging her eyes, she hastily wiped them away.

  *They're gone,* she thought, *and thinking about them won't bring them back, so you might as well just stop it.*

  Lost in her thoughts, Zyte didn't notice another looming puff and flew straight threw it, emerging on the other side damp and slightly chilled. Her stormy gray wings were now covered in dew drops.

  "Great," she muttered, "not only am I late but now I'm soaked."

  She couldn't believe how late it was when she had woken up. And on graduation day at that, she was best swordsman in the class, much to the displeasure of the male students. She been so rushed this morning, she had only grabbed her Lecan wood bow and quiver full of arrows and rushed out the door, she hadn't even woken up her guardian, Leyann.

  Leyann…

  Another reason she was picked on. A guardian appeared to every Light Soaran the day they were born. Each guardian was said to symbolize what that person would be like. The tiny winged pyre lizards were said to symbolize the birth of a courageous soul. The winged foxes known as kytels appeared to a soul that would one day be full of wisdom. And the gerahks, the hawks that bore razor sharp claws on their wings, they were for ones that would strive for power.

  Every Light Soaran born was destined to receive one of these, all but she. She had received Leyann. Leyann was a bright blue fairy. No one in the entire history of the Light Soarans had ever received a fairy. She was picked on the most because of this.

  But she didn't care, she wouldn't have traded Leyann for anything. Leyann was her best and only friend.

  Zyte differed from other Light Soarans in one other way, and this was a secret she guarded the most. Only Leyann knew of this secret.

  Absorbed in this fresh flow of thoughts, Zyte didn't notice the shadows that had begun to follow her underneath the clouds.

  A sudden screech burst her out of her thoughts.

  She stopped abruptly and hovered in the air. Looking for the source of the screech she reached into the pouch she held by her belt and drew out the last pyre crystal. She knew what had made the screech, there was only one thing that could have, a Dark Soaran.

  A pair of them suddenly burst out of the clouds below her.

  *Shoot*

  Zyte quickly turned around and started flying as fast as she could, weaving in and out of clouds puffs. One she might have been able to handle if she had her sword, but not two.

  Dark Soarans were the source of many children's nightmares, even the adults would sometimes dream about them. Dark Soarans were basically huge winged lizards. A sharp sickle-shaped blade adorned their tails, and their wings were pitch black. A large claw topped each of their clawed talon-like hind feet, their fingers ended in smaller versions, but were no less sharp. Their scaly, beaked head were topped with three small horns arranged in a triangular fashion. And their eyes, the cold dark slits that always seemed consumed with greed.

  A sudden prickle of alarm went off in her senses and she quickly dodged, barely missing the beam that had shot out of one of the Dark Soaran's horns.

  *Great,* she thought, *not only am I late and soaked, but now I'm being pursued by a pair of Dark Soarans out for my blood, and they're shooting at me, could this day get any worse?*

  Another beam went streaming past, closely followed by a second. Zyte wouldn't be able to keep this up forever, she had to do something now.

  Still clutching the pyre crystal, Zyte quickly spun around to face the Dark Soarans, practically flying backwards. She raised the hand that held the gem, feeling it grow hot.

  "Take this!"

  She threw the crystal at the Dark Soarans, watching it streak through the air toward them. The Dark Soarans noticed it coming too late, just as the crystal reached them it exploded in a ball of flame. The Dark Soarans shrieked with pain as the flames burnt their skin before disappearing in a puff of black smoke.

  Zyte gave a huge sigh of relief, that had been way too close.

  She turned to leave, but again her senses prickled in alarm. Almost too late she twisted as another Dark Soaran swept past her, its claws nearly slashing her throat. Though she managed to prevent it from getting her throat she wasn't able to avoid the attack. She herself gave a cry of pain as the claws cut her shoulder, drawing pain and blood.

  She wheeled to face the Dark Soaran even though her arm was now in considerable pain. She didn't even hear the second one rushing toward her.

  The second one rammed her with such force that it nearly knocked her out of the sky. Struggling to right herself and ignore the new pain in her shoulder she looked up right before the first one slammed into her.

  She was slammed out of the air again, this time however she felt her consciousness slipping. The air rushed past her as she began to fall, darkness obscuring her vision. The last thing she heard was the Dark Soaran's victorious shriek as she lost consciousness.


	2. Encounter

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  Zyte felt her head throb, everything was still dark. Her body felt stiff and sore, whatever she was laying on didn't help, it was rigid and unyielding, quite unlike a cloud.

  She cautiously opened her eyes a tiny bit, the bright light stung her eyes, everything was fuzzy. She blinked several times, trying to focus. A small dancing blue light started to come into focus. It looked so, familiar.

  "Leyann?" she asked weakly, immediately wishing she hadn't said anything, the throbbing in her head increased painfully.

  The blue light turned away from her.

  "Link! She's waking up!"

  A hurried sound of feet quickly came walking over.

  "Hey, how are you feeling?" a kind voice asked.

  Zyte blinked several more times and a face swam into view. It was clearly that of a young boy, no older than fifteen, his crystal blue eyes clearly showing concern.

  Zyte pushed against whatever she was laying on with her good arm, raising herself up. The youth backed up slightly as she sat up. She gave a small cough, feeling water burn her lungs, she suddenly realized how damp she was.

  "What happened?" she asked, massaging her throbbing forehead with a hand.

  "I saw you fall out of the sky into the lake, and I swam out there and got you out. You managed to swallow a bit of water though."

  She looked up at this statement, the pain in her head forgotten. "Lake? What's a Lake?"

  The boy gave her a confused look, "What's a lake? You mean you've never seen a lake?" He gestured behind him, "This is Lake Hylia."

  Zyte slowly turned her head, trying to ignore the increased throbbing as she moved it. Stretching out before her was the largest amount of water she had ever seen, she felt her jaw drop in shock. That wasn't all though, the trees that surrounded this lake had green leaves. She turned her eyes skyward, the horizon was dotted with clouds, clouds that she had been flying above not too long ago.

  "Am I… on the ground?"

  "Well where else would you be?"

  "But we're not, I shouldn't be…" Zyte struggled to her feet, her body aching in protest. She started to spread her wings, ready to return to the air, but a sharp pain in her right wing forced her down to her knees.

  "Hey! You shouldn't try standing, you might hurt yourself more!" The boy's face was lined with concern, but Zyte didn't know if she could trust him or not, if she was on the ground then this had to be some Light Soaran that had been banished down here. No Light Soaran would willingly go beneath the clouds, so he had to of been forced down like she was. But, if he had been forced why was he acting so odd? Looking at her like she was some strange being.

  Another flash of pain shot through her wing, she gritted her teeth, trying to ignore it. Maybe he was just ignorant, or had he forgotten the stories, even though that seemed highly unlikely to her. "Light Soarans are not supposed to leave the clouds, it's practically forbidden."

  "Light Soarans? Never heard of them, and I've been around quite a bit."

  This statement came as quite a shock to Zyte. She looked at the boy, "what do you mean you've never heard of a Light Soaran? Who…"

  She stopped, her eyes lingering on him for a moment, finally noticing the absence of wings. Who was this boy, or for that matter, what was he?

  "What are you?"

  The youth looked slightly offended at this, his eyes turning a shade darker with annoyance to her question. Zyte knew immediately she had said the wrong thing. At that moment he found herself going over the stories in her mind, one stuck out in particular. The one that told of a wingless race below the clouds.

  Zyte lowered her head slightly, feeling shameful from her own ignorance and tactlessness, she was truly confused now, and it showed on her face. She could feel her heart start to quicken, what if this boy decided to kill her because of this? "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you or anything, but I never believed the stories could be true, a wingless race that lived below the clouds."

  He paused, his eyes continuing to show annoyance, but now also a look of confusion was apparent in their depths. He seemed to giving great thought as to how to reply to her confusion. "My name's Link, I'm a Hylian."

  Zyte felt her heart slow down, she realized she had been thinking rather stupidly, this boy had just saved her out of a lake, he wasn't about to go and kill her. "Well, thank you for saving me, my name's Zyte, I'm a Light Soaran." She rose to give a slight bow, but just as she bent, the pain in her wing caused her to give a small gasp of pain. She sank back to her knees.

  "Are you okay?" He hurried over to kneel beside her, the annoyance that had lined his face was gone, replaced with a look of concern.

  Zyte gritted her teeth again before answering, her wing was really hurting. "My wing, I think something's wrong with it."

  Link seemed to be his weighing options. "Maybe I can help, could you try and stretch it out while I feel if there's anything wrong with the bone?"

  Zyte nodded, she was finally starting to relax, and felt she could trust him. She carefully spread out the throbbing wing, being careful not to jar it too badly. Link began to gently pass his hands over it, feeling for any odd places. A sharp intake of breath told him that he had found the source, the bone felt together, but cracked.

  Link went over the possibilities in his head, it didn't feel like anything too serious. "I think you might have a fracture, probably from hitting the water, it doesn't feel too bad though." He shifted his gaze over to his other companion, "Navi, could you get me a few of the bandages from my pack?"

  Navi quickly complied, floating over to his pack and disappearing into the depths. Link noticed the girl watching Navi, confusion lined her face. Maybe she didn't have fairies where she was from.

  "That's Navi, she's my guardian fairy."

  Zyte lowered her head, staring at the ground. "She looks a lot like Leyann. Leyann's my guardian, she's a fairy too," she bit her lip, "she's probably worried sick about me right now," she added.

  This statement surprised Link a bit. "You have a fairy guardian? If you hadn't told me I'd of sworn you were almost a Kokiri, they all have fairy guardians, they all wear green for that matter too."

  "I'm the only one with a fairy guardian, the only Light Soaran to ever have one," she said, a tinge of bitterness in her voice.

  An awkward silence followed this, but at that moment Navi floated gracefully over, or as gracefully as she could, being weighed down by the bandages.

  Link unraveled a stretch of the bandage. "Okay, this may hurt a bit." That being said he proceeded to wrap the bit of wing that had fractured, Zyte took it very well, biting her lip to keep from crying out.

  "There we go," he said after finishing. Getting back to his feet he walked over to his pack and fished around in it for a second. "I know it's in here somewhere, aha!" From one of the side pockets he pulled out a small glass bottle full of red liquid. "Here," he said, handing her the bottle, "drink this, it should make you feel better, and help those cuts on your shoulder heal faster."

  "Thanks," she gave a slight smile, showing she really was feeling better about not only the wound, but also about him and the fact that due to forces beyond her control, she was suddenly on the ground.

  Link walked a short distance away and sat down on a small knoll facing the lake. When Zyte failed to follow him he turned his head slightly to look back at her and patted the ground invitingly.

  "Come on, I don't bite," he said, smiling good naturedly.

  Zyte smiled in return and walked over to sit down next to him. Uncorking the bottle of red potion she took a tentative sip. It took all of Link's self control not to burst out laughing at the face she made.

  "Yeah, it takes a little while to get use to the rather unique taste of red potion."

  "You've obviously never had something with Danaric sap in it."

  Link laughed at this, "can't say I have." He turned his gaze back to the lake. "So why'd you fall out of the sky anyway?"

  The smile quickly vanished from her face. "Some Dark Soarans attacked me."

  "Dark Soarans? Those some kind of monster?"

  "Not exactly…"

  "What then?"

  Zyte thought about this for a second, this explanation would no doubt lead to many more questions, some she'd rather not answer, but she felt like she could trust Link, she could just leave out a few of the more sensitive details. She opened her mouth her tell him, but then she heard the screech.

  Zyte's eye widened in alarm, they both jumped to their feet and whirled to face the noise. A pair of Dark Soarans were coming at them from across the ground, their taloned feet kicking up clods of dirt each time they stepped.

  "Those would be Dark Soarans."

  Link quickly turned and snatched a sword and shield that had been lying near his pack.

  Zyte didn't have time to tell him that it probably wasn't a good idea to fight them. A prickle of alarm went off, and she quickly dodged to the side, a beam barely missed her. Another one was flying in from behind them.

  His sword at ready, Link charged.

  *Link doesn't know what he's getting himself into, there's only one thing left to do, no matter the risk.*

  Zyte summoned the power within her, hoping that when it was over, she'd still be able to call this youth a friend.

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Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.


	3. Shadow Twister

Hi everyone, sorry for the long delay, my brain decided to finally takes its vengeance out on me for writing instead of playing solitaire like it wanted and gave me writers block. So in a vain attempt to get out of it I spent about three hours every day for a week playing solitaire while listening to music. The good news, it worked, I got out of writers block, the bad news, I have basically memorized about 40 songs, most of them in Japanese, all of which seem to love getting stuck in my head at various points in the day. Believe me, it is extremely annoying trying to remember the acceleration formula without wind resistance when Ayumi Hamasaki's Flower Garden is playing over and over in your head, not to mention the weird looks I get when I start singing Japanese under my breath.

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

Author's note: Since some people have asked me why my pen name and my character's name are the same, I've decided just to post the answer with my new chapter. I got the nickname Zyte after a few of my friends read a few of my short stories with Zyte in them and started calling me that instead of my real name(and before you ask, yes, my friends are weird, but then again so am I^_^)

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  Link charged at the Dark Soarans, his mind only on the battle, ready to defend himself and Zyte, no overgrown lizards were going to intimidate him.

  *Better be careful though, that beam Zyte dodged looked pretty dangerous, and those claws look pretty nasty.*

  A few yards away from him, the Dark Soarans stopped abruptly, their claws skidding slightly on the soil, and started backing away, their gaze beyond him, and clearly showing fear.

  *What the… Shoot, Zyte!*

  Link quickly turned, but what he saw nearly made him drop his sword in shock.

  Zyte was standing in front of a third Dark Soaran, her eyes closed and head slightly bowed, wings unfurled to their full extent. Shadows swarmed around her, slithering across the ground to encircle the air around her. They suddenly enclosed her, so that only darkness showed. Then her form began to seethe and twist, growing in size. As she grew upward, features began to form. Her skin turned scaly, a long, sinuous tail grew. Claws formed on the ends of her feet and hands, her legs and arms had become thick and bulky with muscles. Her wings became scaly as well, and her head turned snout-like and grew frills that swooped backward. A line of spines drew down her back and tail. Then the black of the shadows melted away into a rich, medium blue. The creature drew its lips back to give a slight snarl, revealing rows of sharp teeth.

  Zyte had turned into a water dragon.

  "Eep!" Navi took this opportunity to disappear under Link's hat.

  "Ignore the boy! Get the Shadow Twister!" the Dark Soaran closest to Zyte snarled at the other two.

  The Dark Soaran then had to quickly leap out of the way, as Zyte had taken a swipe at it with a clawed hand.

  Link turned as the two Dark Soarans leaped over his head to join the fray, only able to watch in stunned disbelief.

  Zyte twisted this way and that, striking at the Dark Soarans with her claws and tail, lunging with her head when she got a chance. When one of the Dark Soarans managed to draw a line of blood down her back she rammed her head into it, sending it flying several feet before it managed to right itself. While she was preoccupied with that one another moved in to get a shot at her throat. Its daring was rewarded with a slash from Zyte's claws, breaking the Dark Soaran's outstretched arm. The Dark Soaran scuttled backward howling in pain, its arm hanging limp. In its haste to get away from any further strikes it bumped into a second Dark Soaran that had been circling for an opening. The second Dark Soaran screeched in annoyance, striking out with its bladed tail at the one that had bumped into it. Dodging the attack, the Dark Soaran shrieked at the other, as if it were enraged that it was being attacked by its own kind, before lashing out with its good arm. Noticing the argument between the two Dark Soarans, Zyte drew in a deep breath before blowing a blast of frosty air at the two of them, encasing them in a block of ice. She quickly struck out with her tail, shattering not only the block, but the Dark Soarans as well.

  The remaining Dark Soaran noticed the destruction of its colleagues and quickly took off from the ground. Screeching out what sounded like "one day," it disappeared into the glare of the sun.

  Zyte gave one last resounding roar of fury before turning her attention toward him.

  He raised his sword, unsure if Zyte recognized him or not.

  "You can put your sword away, I'm not going to attack you."

  Link twisted, looking around wildly, he knew he had heard Zyte's voice. He glanced back at the dragon, its form was now covered in shadows. It started to shrink rapidly, claws melting into hands and scales melting into feathers.

  Zyte finally reappeared, and when the last shadow had dissipated, she fell forward onto her knees, her arms shaking as she held them rigid against the ground, trying to support herself.

  Link quickly hurried over to kneel beside her. She was breathing heavily, her skin pale. The cuts on her shoulder started to bleed slightly, ruby colored droplets falling to the grass.

  "Hey are you all right?" He asked, offering her a cloth to help stem the bleeding. Zyte took the offered cloth and settled back into a crossed leg position.

  "So, how exactly did you do that?" Link asked, bewilderment lining his face.

  Zyte pressed the cloth against her shoulder before looking at him.

  "I'm sorry if I frightened you, Shadow Twisters tend to have that effect on people."

  Seeing the blank look on Link's face she lowered her head and sighed.

  "You don't have Shadow Twisters down here, do you?

  He settled down into a crossed leg position as well, "I think I would know if we did. So how did you do that?"

  "Shadow twisting, the ability to absorb and transform into different forms at will."

  "So can a lot of Light Soarans shadow twist?"

  She shook her head, "I'm the first one in a thousand years, and only the second in the history of my people. And the first one, he was killed for having that ability."

  Link's eyes widened in shock, "They killed him just because he could shadow twist? Seems a little prejudiced."

  She sighed, "Light Soarans tend to be wary of anything new or different, we've practically forbidden exploring, even going beneath the clouds, why do you think I freaked so much when I found out I was on the ground? Leyann's the only one who knows I'm a Shadow Twister, well her and you now."

  "Oh, so what forms can you turn into?"

  She held up her hand, ticking off fingers.

  "Let's see, there's the water dragon, a Zeira, an Ixila, and a Variya, those are giant birds that roam the sky above the clouds, the Zeiras are fire elemental, the Ixilas are lightning, and the Variyas are water. And the last form I have is a Dark Soaran."

  "What? You mean to tell me you can transform into those things?"

  She lowered her head, "Yes, the Dark Soaran who form I use is my mother's."

  This caught Link's attention. "You're mother is a Dark Soaran?" he asked cautiously.

  She nodded. "Was, my father too, they transformed two years ago, that was when I found out I was a Shadow Twister too." A single tear slid down her cheek and fell to the ground. "We were just going about our daily routines, my father and I were just about to go out and collect pyre crystals, my mother had come to tell us to be sure we were careful, and then…" her voice stuttered. "My mother fell to her knees screaming, and transformed into a Dark Soaran. She came after me, my father tried to protect me with his sword, he managed to land a few blows, but then he too fell screaming to the ground and transformed. They both came after me then, and some instinct told me to focus on my Dark Soaran that my mother had become and I did so. We were both surrounded by shadows, shadow twisting is rather painful on the forms I absorb, my mother, she didn't survive it, but I turned into a Dark Soaran. When the shadows dissipated, the Dark Soaran that my father had turned into thought I was my mother and left, I still don't know what happened to him. Of course, news that my father and mother turned into Dark Soarans spread pretty fast, many people will lose a parent to a Dark Soaran, because they transform, but I was the first to lose both. People basically avoided me after that, fearing I was cursed or something, because I'm so different."

  "Sounds rough, I know what its like to be different."

  "Really, you don't seem like the kind of person who'd be shunned. What happened to you?"

  Link proceeded to tell her about the Kokiri Forest, the Kokiri, the day Navi appeared, the Great Deku Tree, and the many adventures he'd had.

  When he finished, Zyte seemed deep in thought.

  "What's up?" Link asked.

  Startled, Zyte looked up.

  She shook her head, "oh, it's nothing, really." In truth she had been thinking of more of the legends they had supposedly gotten from the Hylians, Link's stories were confirming many she had thought only to be fairy tales. What else could be true that the elders of her race had decided to keep secret? But now wasn't the time for such thoughts. Shaking them from her head she gingerly removed the cloth she had been holding against the cuts on her shoulder, thankfully the bleeding had stopped.

  "That's good," Link said, noticing as well, "why'd they start bleeding again anyway? Seems kinda odd that they'd just start bleeding again after what you just did, if anything I would think they'd of healed."

  Zyte took a deep steadying breath before answering, "sometimes when I shadow twist if I already have wounds they'll sometimes heal, sometimes get worse, or they won't change at all. Shadow twisting is very fickle, even I seem to change the forms in some way so that they're closer to me. Take the water dragon for example, the dragon I absorbed had pale blue scales, my form has medium blue, the same color as my eyes. Or my Dark Soaran form, instead of black wings, they're the same color as my regular wings, even my Zeira form is different, normally a Zeira's wings are covered in flames, mine aren't."

  She gingerly stood up, looking at the clouds with a look crossing between longing and concern alight on her face.

  "I really need to get back, they might start thinking I died or something, but I can't go anywhere with my wing like this, and I don't want to risk shadow twisting again, it might make it worse."

  Link stood up as well, "I have an idea, it might take you a little while to get back, but I promise that your wing will have healed. I have a friend who's been studying medicine and such, she'll be able to help you, but it's a bit of a ride to get there."

  Zyte thought for a second, "well I'm willing to try anything, but what exactly do you mean by ride?" The only thing Zyte had ever ridden on were her parent's shoulders when she was young.

  Smiling, Link reached into a pouch at his belt and brought out his ocarina, and Zyte, upon seeing it, brightened at once.

  "Oh, what a beautiful ocarina, I have one at home, but it's not nearly as nice as yours." Zyte felt her heart sink a little at this statement, she hoped she'd be able to hold her ocarina in her hands once more, it was nice down here, but she didn't want to stay down here any longer than she had to.

  Link's smile widening further, he raised the ocarina to his lips and played Epona's Song. A whinny was heard, and Epona came galloping over a crest on the ground, her mane and tail streaming behind her in the wind.

  When Epona had reached them Link reached out his hand to pat her nose. Zyte however had backed up considerably.

  "What in the name of the Goddesses is that?!"

  Chuckling, Link replied, "this is Epona, she's my horse, don't worry, she won't hurt you, this is what I meant by ride. Come on, give her a pet, she doesn't bite."

  Zyte cautiously edged forward, when she had gotten near Epona she held out her hand, which, Link noted, was shaking slightly from nervousness. Epona gave her hand a nuzzle, clearly looking for carrots. Upon finding none she tossed her head and gave Zyte a reproving look.

  Laughing at the look on Zyte's face, he moved to Epona's side and helped Zyte get on before getting on himself.

  "Okay, hang on, it might take us the rest of the day to get there, but it'll give you a great look at Hyrule Field."

  He reached down and patted Epona's neck, "all right Epona, let's go see Malon."

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Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.


	4. Welcome to Lon Lon Ranch

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  It took them most of the day to cross Hyrule field. The ride was pretty much uneventful, unless you count the time a Poe popped up in front of them and nearly caused Zyte to fall off. Link had a good long laugh at that, the memory of it still caused tears of laughter to well in his eyes.

  It was nearing sundown as they approached the entrance of Lon Lon Ranch.

  "Good thing we got here before sundown, if you thought the Poe was bad, you should try riding when Stalchids are popping up everywhere," Link gave a small chuckle, causing Zyte to mutter something under her breath.

  "That's not very nice!" Navi, who was trailing behind them, shouted at Zyte.

  "Watch it Navi, or you might just wake up one morning to find yourself trapped in a bottle," Zyte hissed back at her.

  "You wouldn't…"

  "Just watch yourself," she said, her face splitting into a wicked grin.

  "Children…" Link warned.

  He slowed Epona to a walk as they neared the stable. Link hopped off Epona's back and helped Zyte get off, she winced visibly as she shifted her wing, the bumpy ride had not helped the fractured bone.

  Epona, knowing she was home, gave a loud whinny to announce her presence to the other horses. Malon, who had been in the stable at the time, came hurrying out.

  "Link!" she shouted when she had seen him, and immediately ran over and smothered him in a hug. A dull blush rose into his cheeks.

  "Where have you been Link? I haven't seen you in ages."

  "Been traveling a bit," he said in a crushed voice.

  "Oh sorry!" she quickly released him.

  "So where's your dad and Ingo?" he asked, gingerly feeling for broken ribs.

  "Oh they're both gone for a couple weeks on a delivery run. I'm taking care of the horses until they get back."

  "You know Link, if you don't want to introduce Zyte, that's fine with us, we're finding this rather entertaining," Navi said smugly.

  "Navi!"

  He quickly turned, Navi was floating beside Zyte, who had a very smug look indeed.

  "And who is this Link?" Malon asked.

  "Er, this is a friend of mine, Malon meet Zyte."

  "A pleasure to meet you," Zyte said, bowing slightly.

  "Likewise, so what bring you two here?"

  "Actually, Zyte's been injured, and since you've been studying medicine I thought you could help."

  "Injured? Let's take a look."

  She strode over to Zyte and started looking at the cuts on her shoulder.

  "Well these don't look too bad, some Teric root should help these heal right up."

  Link coughed, "well, that's not the only injury, she also has a fractured wing."

  Malon looked confused, "a fractured what? I'm afraid I don't understand."

  "A fractured wing," Zyte said softly, stretching out her wing so Malon could see.

  Malon's eyes widened, "uh, no offence or anything, but what are you?"

  "A Light Soaran," she said simply, her eyes lowering to the ground.

  Malon turned to Link, "right, so, how exactly did you meet Zyte?"

  "Tell you what, why don't you two discus that while you treat Zyte's wounds."

  Malon smiled broadly, "now that sounds great, I haven't had anyone to talk to in a week, I'd love some company." She started for the farm house, humming softly, looking absolutely delighted.

  Zyte, on the other hand, looked as if she'd rather be riding Epona through a field of Poes.

  "I'm not so sure about this, I mean, she seems nice and everything, but…"

  "But nothing, go in there and have a chat, you'll enjoy it, I promise." Zyte still looked hesitant, Link gave her a small push, "just go, I'll be right out here training Epona, I'll even get Navi to stay with you."

  "Aw, do I have to?"

  Link glared at Navi, "yes you do, and no buts."

  Zyte sighed, "Alright, I'm going, but if I start screaming bloody murder you'd better come and see what's wrong or else."

  She started walking toward the farm house, Navi floating serenely behind her. Link sighed, he hoped Malon wouldn't give her a reason to scream bloody murder.

  Luckily, no screams were heard the rest of the afternoon. Malon had treated Zyte's wounds excellently and had even sewed up the tears in Zyte's tunic. At dinner, Link was treated to a long talk between the two girls, who had clearly become fast friends. This, of course, was before Zyte discovered how much Hylian apples tasted like lecan fruit, and unable to contain her joy at this ate four in ten minutes flat.

  Night quickly fell, Link volunteered to sleep in the stable with the horses. His mind however, refused to let him sleep. It kept buzzing with thoughts about the Dark Soarans, Zyte's shadow twisting ability, and the thoughts of a hidden race above the clouds. Finally realizing he wasn't going to get to sleep any time soon, he got up and decided to go for a walk.

  Walking out into the slightly chilly night, Link moved out toward the corral to get a better view of the stars. Taking in a deep breath of the night air, he let it out with a sigh. Then he heard a soft humming. Looking for its source, he noticed a silhouette sitting in the crook of a tall tree. He smiled, looks like he wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep.

  Zyte was humming softly, gazing up at the stars.

  "You can't sleep either, huh?"

  Startled, Zyte nearly fell out of the tree. She glared down at Link, "don't do that! You want me to fracture my wing again right after it's healed?"

  "I take it Malon's treatment worked then?"

  She stood up on the branch, balancing slightly before giving her wings a flap and taking off. She circled the tree once and landed softly back on the ground.

  "You tell me."

  She threw back her head and stared up at the clouds, "its really pretty up there, I'd love to show you, I bet Malon would love to go too, there's a healer in my village by the name of Ksumber, I'd bet Malon would be able to learn a lot from him."

  "Hoo hoo, yes, a pity that even now someone seeks to destroy it."

  They both wheeled to face the voice. Sitting in the tree was a large owl.

  "Link, we meet again."

  "Kaepora! It's been forever since I've seen you."

  "Yes, and yet the news I bring is not good." He turned his large eyes on Zyte. "You see, there has long been a scheme to destroy the Light Soarans."

  "What?" Zyte said, looking extremely fearful.

  "Yes, that is why I am here, Link, you are to go with Zyte to the Temple of Twilight above the clouds, you will have to find out what you need to do from there."

  "You mean you don't know?" Link asked, crossing his arms.

  "Hoo hoo, this has only recently been brought to my attention, therefore I do not know much about it."

  "Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly equipped to go flying above the clouds."

  "That is why I am presenting you with this." Kaepora extended his wing and plucked a single feather. He dropped it and let it flutter down to Link's feet.

  Link reached down and picked it up, "what am I supposed to do with this?"

  "Wait."

  The feather suddenly disappeared, Link started clawing at his back.

  "Hey! Ow, that itches!"

  A pair of golden brown wings suddenly appeared on his back.

  Zyte held her hands to her mouth, clearly shocked.

  "Wow." Link gave his new wings an experimental flap. "Well, this is, different."

  "Indeed, if you ever need them to be hidden, just focus on them and they will disappear, do the same to make them reappear. I suggest you leave first thing in the morning, until then, it might be a good idea to get some flying lessons."

  With that, Kaepora flapped his own wings and took off into the night. "Hoo hoo, good luck!"

  "Well, we might as well get started on those flying lessons, ready to start?"

  They spent most of the night practicing, by early morning, Link had gotten quite good at taking off and staying in the air, his landings still needed some work though.

  "Well at least the clouds are a lot softer than the ground," Zyte counseled him after a particularly rough landing. It was agreed that Zyte would shadow twist into a Zeira and bring him up there though.

  That morning Malon was greeted by a pair of bleary eyed people, both of which quickly made up lies about why the looked so tired.

  They had also agreed that they should probably travel a little ways away from the ranch for wind and take off space reasons. And they didn't want Malon to completely freak when a giant bird suddenly appeared in the middle of her pasture.

  "You will come and visit sometimes, won't you?" she asked Zyte when she heard they were leaving.

  Zyte smiled, "now that I know what's down here you couldn't keep me away even if you tried."

  Malon waved them a farewell as Epona trotted out to Hyrule Field, Zyte was already in the air above them, clearly enjoying being able to fly again.

  A good three miles from the ranch, Zyte swooped down on them to tell them this was as good a place as any to take off.

  Zyte shadow twisted into a Zeira, a large, fiery red bird that sported a long tail and a pair feathery, tufted horns not unlike Kaepora's on top of its head. The large talons and hooked beak looked ready to tear anything that came too close.

  "I'm guessing Zeiras aren't peaceful, are they?"

  "Nope, they're pretty deadly predators, they mostly like to eat Guays, but they will go after Light Soarans if they're not being careful."

  Link settled onto the Zeira's back, his legs hanging down on either side of its neck, looking like he was not going to enjoy this at all.

  "Alright, here we go." Zyte spread her wings and gave them a flap, raising them off the ground.

  Link quickly shut his eyes, he didn't like this at all. They continued to rise, Link suddenly felt liked he had passed through a rather brief rain storm.

  "You can open your eyes Link, we're above the clouds."

  Link cautiously opened his eyes, finding himself surrounded by a sea of white.

  "So where is this Twilight Temple?" he shouted into the wind.

  "It's on the other side of my village, no one has been there in at least a two hundred years though, but I want to pick up some stuff from my home first, and tell everyone I'm not dead."

  Zyte turned a sharp left.

  "You'll start seeing it in a few hours, until then, I suggest you enjoy the view.

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Authors note: Hey all, what do you all think so far? Until the next chapter, keep reviewing, I love to hear what you think!

Oh, and parry, if you want some good stories, some of my personal favorites are Misplaced by Saranomy, a great FFX fic. The Infinite Gate by Red Chaos Mage and The Way the Wings of Time Blow by Aria Zephyr, a pair of fics coinciding with each other. The Legend of Zelda: The Golden Land by Jedi SSJ, a great fic with two Links! ^_^ And finally The Dream Walker and StarCrossed Souls: Twilight of the Spirit Sword by Hero Genkaku, StarCrossed Souls being an awesome Soul Calibur II fic.


	5. Above the Clouds

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  The trip was rather uneventful, though at one point they did stop at a lecan tree grove that was bursting with fruit. Encouraged by Zyte, Link did try one of the fruit, discovering that it did indeed taste like a Hylian apple. Zyte, though still in her Zeira form, gulped several down as well.

  "I thought you said Zeira ate Guays," Link said after she had finished.

  "Well yeah, I said that, but everything that lives up here likes a good lecan fruit, how's Navi doing?"

  Link glanced up at Navi, who was floating blissfully around his head.

  "You holding up okay Navi?"

  "I'm good, just fine," she answered, her voice a higher pitch that usual.

  "What's with you? You've barely said two words since we left the ground."

  "It's nothing, I just have a weird feeling."

  "A weird feeling? What kind of feeling?"

  "Don't worry Navi, you're just sensing the other guardians, you'll get used to it."

  "Other guardians? You didn't tell me about those."

  "Well you didn't exactly ask, we should probably get going though, so I'll explain on the way."

  About an hour more into the flight, large cloud puffs started looming in the horizon. Zyte slowed down and landed on the clouds.

  "Okay, from here out we fly in ourselves. Needless to say, the villagers wouldn't appreciate a Zeira landing in the square."

  Link jumped off her back and landed lightly on the clouds. Focusing slightly, he made his wings appear on his back. Zyte returned to her normal form and took a look around.

  "That's weird."

  Stretching his wings, Link looked over at Zyte. "What's up?"

  "The wind currents, they just changed."

  A sudden gust blew in, Zyte held up one of her hands to shield her face. Another gust came from behind them. The cloud below them started to turn dark.

  "What the…"

  A large white and yellow bird suddenly shot out of the clouds a few yards away from them, its body covered in dancing static bolts. Its eyes centering on Zyte, it let out a piercing shriek and sent a lightning bolt streaming in her direction.

  Zyte tried to dodge it, but seeing it coming too late, it glanced her side. She sank to her knees, clutching her sides as a few static bolts danced over her.

  Sensing victory, the bird swooped toward her.

  "Oh no you don't!" Link shouted, drawing an arrow to his bow. Releasing it, it buried itself up to the feathered tip in the bird's wing.

  The bird shrieked and halted its flight, focusing on Link.

  Link drew his sword, griping the hilt tightly. "Yeah, that's right, I just hurt you, now come and get me," he muttered under his breath.

  Abandoning Zyte, the bird speeded toward him, its eyes filled with rage. Link readied his sword.

  "Don't attack it with your sword! You'll be electrocuted!" Zyte managed to shout out.

  Noticing the danger of what she had said, Link dodged, barely missing the bird's sharp beak. He quickly flapped his wings to get into the air, he would be a sitting duck if he limited his movement to the cloud top.

  "If I can't use my sword then what should I use?" he shouted back at Zyte.

  "Anything long distance, but they're really fast… Watch it!"

  Link quickly dodged again, feeling the breeze of the bird's wake as it passed by him yet again.

  Link watched as the bird turned for another go by. "Long distance huh?" he muttered, sheathing his sword and focusing Din's Fire into his hand.

  Link let it get a yard away from him before he released the fireball. The bird tried to stop its flight and get away, but it was too late. It was still flapping vainly as the fireball engulfed it. Uttering one last shriek, the bird disappeared in a puff of smoke. A pale yellow gem fell to the clouds below it. Link breathed a sigh of relief and flapped over to Zyte.

  Kneeling down beside her, he took her shoulder and gave it a small shake. "Hey, you okay?"

  Zyte gritted her teeth, "yeah, I'll be fine, just give me a minute." She glanced up at him, "how on earth did you produce that fireball, it was way more powerful than any pyre crystal I've seen."

  "A spell, called Din's Fire."

  This seemed to startle Zyte. "Din's Fire? You can use magic then?"

  "Yeah, how'd you know?"

  "Din's fire was mentioned in one of the ancient scriptures my mother used to translate." Zyte stood up, rubbing her right arm. "Shoot, my arm's gone all numb, stupid Ixila." She gave her arm a shake, a sour look on her face as it hung limply.

  Link in the mean time had walked over and picked up the yellow gem the Ixila had dropped. He held it up to the sun, watching the reflections dance on its surface.

  "Shock crystal, they're able to produce some pretty nasty lightning bolts when cracked. It's pretty rare to find Ixila carrying them though, most of the time they're found in thunderclouds."

  "So you can hurt monsters with these?"

  "Yep, they work great when combined with dew crystals against Zeiras."

  "It's all yours then, I'd rather use my sword." Link tossed the gem over to Zyte, who fumbled with it for a second after catching it one-handed. After giving it a quick examination, she slipped it into a pouch at her belt.

  "Ready to go?" he asked, stretching his wings slightly.

  "Yeah, I should be able to get something for my arm in the village."

  "Hey! Everyone alright over there!"

  Link and Zyte turned to see a Light Soaran wearing pale blue coming toward them, following him was a pale yellow kytel.

  "I saw the Ixila and… Well look at this! Ksumber! Over here, I've found Zyte!"

  "Master Sillis? What are you doing out here?"

  The Light Soaran landed lightly onto the cloud and gave Zyte a piercing look. "I could ask the same of you, we've been worried sick since you didn't show up for the ceremony. And then of course Leyann showed up looking for you and we really got worried. We've been sending out search parties to look for you, but we were starting to fear that Dark Soarans might have gotten you. Why didn't you show up?"

  She lowered her head, "Dark Soarans did attack me."

  "What? Dark Soarans attacked you? Are you hurt?" Another Light Soaran wearing dark gray joined the group, a silver kytel resting on his shoulder.

  "No Master Ksumber, Link made sure my wounds were healed."

  At this, both of the Light Soarans looked confused.

  "Who?"

  Zyte glanced back at Link, who had remained silent through the conversation. "Link saved me from the Dark Soarans, and he's the one who defeated that Ixila just now."

  Both of the Light Soarans laid their eyes on him, curiosity apparent in their gaze. Sillis smiled, "well, then I must thank you for saving Zyte." He gave a slight bow before straightening up and reaching out to tousle Zyte's hair. "I would hate to see my best student gone before I could make her a master."

  Ksumber still looked skeptical. "Tell me Link, if I may ask, but where are you from and what are you doing here?"

  Link quickly made up a lie. "I'm from a village quite a ways from here. As for why I'm here, a prophet from my village had a vision and I was sent to check it out."

  "Excuse me young sir," the kytel atop Ksumber's shoulder piped it, "but what is the name of your guardian? It is only fair we know her name too."

  "Oh, this is Navi."

  Both Sillis and Ksumber looked up to see Navi floating above Link's head. Ksumber gave her a very odd look. "A fairy? Now that is odd, you must live very far away from here to have a fairy guardian for us not to know about it, news like that tends to travel very fast." He gave Link a piercing look as well, as if daring him to tell the truth.

  Sillis gave Ksumber a friendly slap on the back. "Come now Ksumber, don't be so suspicious. Now then, let us return to the village, I'm sure everyone will be happy to see you, fairy guardian or not. And we'll get something to get rid of the numbness in your arm Zyte," he said, eyeing Zyte's arm.

  Zyte gave a slight bow. "Thank you Master Sillis."

  Link was a little nervous about this, he wasn't sure if his flying skills would convince an already skeptical Light Soaran.

  Zyte, sensing this, whispered to him, "don't worry, just remember what I taught you and you'll do just fine."

  Giving Zyte a small nod, Link flapped his wings and hovered, watching the others do the same.

  "Alright, you two follow us, we don't want anything happening to either of you."

  With that, they took off, flying in the direction of the puffs.

  Zyte flew a little closer to Link and whispered, "great, now that they've found me there'll be a big fuss back at the village. Hopefully it will have died down by nightfall, that's when we'll head to the temple. Until then, we'll just have to grin and bare it."

  She gave Link a half-hearted grin and flapped her wings, catching up with the others.

  Link sighed, something told him it wasn't going to be that easy.

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Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.


	6. Rivalries

Hello all, sorry for the long wait, I had some major school projects that had to get done. I know all of you have been clamoring for Link to use his magic and skills, so in this chapter you'll get your wish! And not only that, but you get an extra long chapter to make up for the last one's shortness! But enough of my rambling, enjoy the chapter!

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  An hour after they had started flying the group reached the edge on the village. Link stared around in wonder, the puffs he had seen in the distance were the Light Soarans homes, not the normal wood or stone ones would expect from the homes made below, these were made entirely of clouds. Lecan trees were planted here and there, and most of the Light Soarans he saw were busy with errands and other things.

  "Sillis!"

  Link turned his head, a female Light Soaran wearing silvery blue was flying toward them. "Hurry up Gailkim!" she called over her shoulder to the green pyre lizard struggling to keep up with her.

  "Evitje, what's wrong?"

  The Light Soaran landed lightly and faced Sillis, she was breathing heavily. "A search update, and bad news. We still haven't found Zyte, but while we've been searching several of our groups have been attacked by Dark Soarans."

  This seemed to upset Sillis greatly, he immediately reached forward to hold her shoulders, "is everyone alright?" he asked rather forcefully.

  Evitje lowered her gaze, shaking her head. "Harukai has lost one of his arms up to the elbow, Lantz's left wing is now basically dead weight, and others have gotten various wounds that aren't too serious." Her head dropped farther, "and we've lost Jinyo, Mefyl, and Iryna."

  Sillis cursed, "why won't Arcaddian realize that their numbers are growing by the day? Doddering old fool."

  "Don't let anyone hear you say that! You know how easily he could have you banished or killed because of that!"

  Sillis hung his head. "You're right, I am sorry my dear. But you would think that the increasing number of recent transformations and deaths would have brought him to his senses. Their ranks are swelling while ours are dwindling."

  "Sillis, if you'll excuse me, but it sounds like I have wounded to attend to, and Wen will not be able to handle all of this on her own," Ksumber piped in.

  "Yes, you are right Ksumber, may the wind fill your wings and speed you on your way."

  Ksumber turned to Zyte, "make sure you stop by later, I'll get Wen to make something for your arm." With that being said, Ksumber took off.

  Sillis face took on a slight smile, "well, at least there is some good news."

  Evitje looked skeptical, "on a day like this I highly doubt that."

  "Oh really? Then try this, I've found Zyte."

  "What?!"

  Sillis glanced back over his shoulder, following his gaze, Evitje's eyes landed on Zyte.

  "Zyte?"

  Evitje suddenly rushed forward, smothering Zyte in a hug, a few tears leaked out of her eyes. "Zyte, we've been so worried about you, when you didn't show up for the ceremony, and then Leyann showed up looking for you… Thank the goddesses you're safe."

  It was evident that Zyte wasn't use to this kind of attention, as she looked extremely uncomfortable.

  "Calm down Evitje, you're going to suffocate her if you're not careful."

  "Yes yes, you're right, I'm sorry." She released Zyte from her grip and stood back, wiping the tears from her eyes.

  Sillis then turned to look at Link. "And of course we can't forget her rescuer. Evitje, this is Link, apparently he's from a village quite a ways from here, he's the one that saved Zyte."

  Evitje turned to look at Link, her eyes looking him up and down. She finally gave a small smile and bowed, "thank you for rescuing Zyte." She then turned back to Sillis, "alright, I'll go tell the search parties we've found Zyte, then I'm heading back to the school," her eyes darted to Zyte for a quick moment, "I expect you to be back soon." With that, she spread her wings and flew into the air above them.

  Sillis watched her for a moment before turning back to them. "Alright, Zyte I expect you must be tired from this ordeal, so you'll probably want to go home and rest, but before you do I want you to go get something for your arm and then come to the school, I'll be waiting for you with Leyann, but be careful on your way there."

  Zyte bowed, "don't worry Master Sillis, I'll get there in one piece."

  Sillis gave her a grin and spread his wings. He then whispered to Link, "if you don't mind putting off your search for the answers of that vision for a bit, could you see to it that she does get there in one piece? I'd really appreciate it."

  "Don't worry, I'll get her there."

  He smiled, "good, I'll see both of you there then." Sillis flapped his wings and was gone.

  "What was Sillis whispering to you?" Zyte asked accusingly.

  Link's face took on a sly smile. "Oh nothing really, he just asked me to get you to the school in one piece."

  Zyte sighed, her good hand going to her forehead in dismay, "nothing like getting attacked by a Dark Soaran to really boost people's confidence in you. Anyway, we might as well head over to Ksumber's, then we can head over to the school. Ksumber lives toward the middle of the village, so we might as well get going."

  They both took off for the center of the village, trying to ignore some of the strange looks Link was given. When he inquired about this, Zyte simply shrugged her shoulders.

  "Like I said before, I'm considered to be a bit weird, for wearing green and other things, the word that I'm back and safe must have gotten out, but everyone's not exactly accustomed to seeing two people wearing green. At least Akkao isn't around, or he'd be tailing me closer than a guardian follows its partner." She gave an immense scowl after saying this, so Link didn't press the subject.

  They soon reached Ksumber's residence. After walking through a thin cloud that served as a door, they entered a large and spacious room.

  "Zyte!"

  A Light Soaran a few years younger than Zyte had hurled herself at her, smothering her in a hug. "You're okay!! I'm so glad, who else would there be to cheer me up if you were gone," she squeaked out, her face buried in Zyte's shoulder.

  "Can't… breathe…" Zyte looked pleadingly at Link, asking for help against the girl's vice-like grip.

  Link, though not sure if he could really help or not, had started to move forward when the girl suddenly released her grip and turned to look at him.

  "And you must be the one saved Zyte, thank you so much too!!"

  And before Link could even back up, she had seized both his hands and started twirling the both of them around in a circle, bouncing slightly as she did so.

  "WEN!!"

  Wen stopped suddenly, releasing a very dizzy Link.

  "Yes Master Ksumber?" she asked, looking very abashed.

  Link's head stopped spinning long enough to see a fuming Ksumber, his hands on his hips, staring at Wen with barely suppressed fury.

  "You really must learn to control yourself, these people need calm and quiet. Ah, Zyte, you are here. I believe I asked Wen to mix something up for your arm."

  "Oh yeah, let me go get it!" Wen hurried out the room, looking glad to be away from an angry Ksumber.

  Ksumber watched her go, shaking his head in dismay. "That girl, an excellent memory and a talent for healing, but that attitude of hers is enough to drive you crazy."

  Zyte made a noncommittal noise, clearly not wanting to incite something. "Will everyone who was injured by the Dark Soarans be okay?"

  "What? Oh, yes yes, everyone will be fine, but I really must get back to my patients, Axia has come down with a rather bad cold and I told her I'd mix something up to get rid of the symptoms. I'll see you later Zyte." With that, he walked toward the door, barely missing Wen, who had come hurrying out with a bottle in her hand.

  "Here you go Zyte, this'll make your arm all better, it'll take till sundown to work though, sorry I couldn't make it sooner, but we're out of velarus leaves. And make sure you drink all of it, I still have more potions to mix up, so I'll see you around sometime" she said, handing Zyte the bottle of pale red liquid and heading back out of the room.

  Zyte eyed the potion with obvious skepticism, she looked up at Link, "well, I'm betting it's going to taste horrible, but I don't exactly have a choice, do I?"

  Link shook his head, "nope, drink it before I have to make you." 

  Zyte sighed, giving the potion one last look before downing it in one gulp, making a face at the taste. "Urgh, remind me never to get hit by a lightning bolt again," she said, setting the bottle down on a table, "let's just hurry up and get to the school."

  Leaving the building, Link and Zyte hurriedly took off into the air, not noticing the eyes that followed them.

  An hour later they reached the training school, a large building that had several lecan trees and various other plants and bushes planted around it.

  "Good thing there aren't any classes today," Zyte muttered, starting for the door, "I was starting to get really annoyed with some of those people, always trying to sneak in a sword strike whenever my back was turned."

  Upon entering the room, a bright blue light suddenly whizzed right for Zyte and started bobbing excitedly around her head. It took Link a few seconds to get a proper look at it, noticing the fine gossamer wings that sprouted from its back, this must have been Zyte's guardian Leyann.

  "Zyte! You're okay! I was so worried, why didn't you wake me up! Don't you ever, ever, ever do that again!" Leyann squeaked out, continuing to dip up and down around Zyte's head.

  "Now aren't you glad I don't act like that," Navi whispered in his ear.

  Link shot her a warning look as Zyte reached out her good hand to halt Leyann's excited bouncing. "It's good to see you too Leyann, I missed you. But if you'll stop bouncing for a moment I'd like to introduce someone to you." Her eyes flickered toward Link before going back to Leyann. "This is Link and his guardian Navi, he's the one that saved me."

  Leyann turned and flickered over to Link. Floating in front of his face for only a moment, she quickly flew back over to Zyte and seemed to be whispering something in her ear.

  Zyte smiled, "of course I know he's from below the clouds, where else do you think I would have landed after being knocked out cold?"

  "But, but he's…"

  "Shh," Zyte suddenly said, putting a finger to her lips, "someone's coming."

  Light footfalls were heard and Sillis entered the room, his yellow kytel wandering around his feet.

  "Good, I thought I heard you Zyte, now will both of you please come with me?" They both nodded. "Good, now please follow me." Sillis turned and went back into the adjoining room.

  "Remember Leyann, not a word about Link, I'll explain later when we get home."

  Both of them followed Sillis out to the back of the school. Several plants and flowering bushes were planted around a small shrine, a sword resting on it's alter. Sillis bent down a picked up the sword, his hand momentarily caressing its shiny surface. He turned toward them.

  "Zyte, by presenting you with this sword I fully recognize you as a master swordsman. And with Link as a witness I proclaim you a master," he held the sword out to Zyte, "may the winds blow gently across your wings."

  Zyte sank into a deep bow, "thank you Master Sillis, I will treasure this blade always." Taking the sword from his hands, Zyte gave it an experimental swing, watching its blade swing through the air with ease.

  Sillis smiled, "I know that a dual swordsman such as yourself would normally be presented with two swords, but I also know that you still have your father's blade, and I am sure that no blade I could give you could match that sword."

  "You are right Master Sillis, I will carry his blade to honor his memory."

  "And now I want you to go home and rest, I am sure-"

  "Aha! I knew I'd find you here!"

  The three of them quickly turned, one could easily see Zyte's expression of joy melt away into one of disgust. A male Light Soaran was standing just beyond the doorway, a dark red Gerahk hovering near his head, its wings beating slowly.

  "Akkao? What are you doing here?" Sillis asked, a confused look on his face.

  Ignoring Sillis, the youth march over to Zyte. A few feet away from her he stopped, "I challenge you Zyte, to a dual."

  Sillis crossed his arms in dismay, "Again? Akkao be reasonable, Zyte has just gotten back, she needs her rest. Besides, you can't expect it to be a fair fight when one of her arms is numb."

  Akkao raised a hand and clenched it into a fist. "I don't care, once a challenge has been made it has to be met."

  Sillis and Akkao continued to bicker, Link eyes went to each one as they tried to get the last word in, each trying to get the other to back down.

  *Geez, this is how he talks to his teacher…* He glanced over at Zyte, he could easily see that she was quickly growing tired of this, and could almost see the thoughts going between her eyes.

  A sudden increase of noise told him that Akkao had started yelling, Sillis was practically red in the face trying to keep his temper under control. Zyte looked about ready just to fight him and get it over with, but he was not about to let her fight when she was at an obvious disadvantage.

  Link decided that did not like this Light Soaran, he acted like a bully, a very stubborn bully at that, refusing to back down. There was only one way to deal with people like that.

  "Fine, then I'll fight you," Link said, crossing his arms.

  This statement caused everyone to look over at him.

  "What? I'm not going to fight you, I challenged Zyte."

  "Is there any rule that says someone else can fight the challenger if the challenged is unable to?"

  Sillis nodded, "there is."

  "Then I'll fight in Zyte's place, she's in no condition to be sword fighting."

  Akkao looked extremely sullen, "fine."

  The group went back inside, where both he and Akkao were given the dulled practice swords.

  "Now then," Sillis began, "I'll be judging this match, and I will stop it when there is a clear victor. And remember, though these practice swords are dulled they can still cause blindness, so no aiming for the face," he looked pointedly at Akkao after saying this, "now begin!"

  Akkao charged at Link, his sword held high. Link readied his sword, griping the hilt with both hands. As Akkao neared him, he jumped into the air, using his wings to continue toward him, bringing his sword down. Link stood his ground and intercepted the attack, his arms shaking slightly as he held back Akkao's sword.

  "Give up?"

  "Not a chance."

  Link suddenly pulled his sword back and stepped to the side, causing Akkao to lose his balance and fall forward. Link took this opportunity to score a quick hit to his shoulder. He could have sworn that out of the corner of his eye that he had seen Zyte stifle a laugh.

  Link quickly stabbed his sword forward again, hoping to land another hit. But Akkao twisted and dodged, turning his sudden change of direction into a slash at Link's arm. Link quickly tucked in his arms and rolled forward under his attack. Ending up behind Akkao, he swiveled and struck his legs with one of his own, knocking him to the floor, Link quickly scrambled to his feet and immediately back flipped away, as Akkao had struck out while still on the floor, trying to score a hit.

  When Link had landed he found that Akkao had quickly recovered and was coming toward him, trying to get him before he had regained his footing from the jump. Link barely got his sword up in time as Akkao launched a flurry of attacks. Blocking what he could and dodging what he couldn't, Link tried to make some leeway where he could attack. But Akkao was clearly trying to force him toward the wall where he wouldn't be able to dodge, he was not about to let this happen. Link suddenly jumped forward. Using his own wings to gain some extra height, he spun over Akkao's head and nailed him on his back. As Akkao spun around to face Link he hit him again in his side with enough force to send him backward several feet. Link quickly crouched and started gathering power into his sword.

  *This might be my only chance to use this, so I have to make it count.*

  Akkao, as if sensing victory, lunged forward, a wild look in his eyes. Link released the energy he had been storing into a powerful spin attack, the resulting force hurling Akkao across the floor. Akkao staggered to his feet and held up his sword.

  Sillis suddenly stepped forward. "I have seen enough, Link is clearly the winner."

  Link relaxed his stance, breathing heavily. Akkao wasn't bad, but he tended to rush in, not thinking about what might happen.

  Akkao looked furious. "But, he used attacks I've never seen before, it's not fair," he whined.

  "I'm sorry Akkao, but Link won fair and square, you have to expect unknown moves in a sword battle."

  "I refuse to lose without scoring a single hit!" Akkao suddenly lunged forward, the wild look still in his eyes. As he neared, Link merely stepped to the side. Caught of guard, Akkao went streaming past him, but not before Link had grabbed his wrists and flipped him onto his back.

  "There, now not only have you been beaten but now you've been humiliated as well," Link told him.

  Akkao's eyes glaring daggers at both Link and Zyte, he hoisted himself off the ground and stomped out of the room.

  "I must apologize for Akkao, he is a very stubborn lad," Sillis said.

  "No need to apologize, I just get a little sick of bullies."

  Sillis seemed to take this into consideration. "Yes, I can see that. I must say though, that was a most impressive display, using Akkao's power against him, and that spinning attack, most impressive indeed."

  Link smiled, "thank you, we should probably be going now though, I promised Zyte I would get her home safely while her arm is still numb."

  "Yes yes, go on ahead, and I wish you luck with your search."

  As they left the school, they heard someone call out Zyte's name. Turning to see who it was, they didn't see anyone, not until her name was called again did they see a nervous looking Light Soaran hiding in the shadows behind a pillar.

  Beckoning them closer, he spoke directly to Zyte. "Um, Zyte, I heard Akkao mumbling about what happened, he seemed pretty mad, I just wanted to warn you."

  Zyte gave the Light Soaran an odd look. "Why are you telling me this Dhreik? Won't Akkao get even angrier at you for telling me this?"

  He lowered his head, "yes, but he seemed really mad this time, he might do something drastic, and I just wanted to warn you. Oh yeah, and congrats on becoming a master." With this being said, Dhreik took off, looking around carefully in case Akkao had seen him.

  "Who was that?"

  "That was Dhreik, one of Akkao's friends, but I honestly don't think he's friends with Akkao because he's nice to him. Poor Dhreik is one of Akkao's punching bags, that's why he's so nervous all the time."

  "Akkao seems like a real jerk to me."

  Spreading her wings, Zyte nodded, "I've fought him so many times there's no longer a challenge in it, he uses the same strategy every time," she gave a small smile, "still, you did very well against him, I'm impressed, especially with that spinning sword technique."

  "Zyte, you said you would explain to me why he's up here," Leyann suddenly piped in.

  She looked up at Leyann, "I did, didn't I? Well, we have a couple hours till we reach my home, so now's as good a time as any."

  A few hours later in Zyte's home, Leyann was still bursting with questions about what had happened.

  "Leyann, you've asked me that question five times already, and five times I've given the same answer," Link said, rubbing his forehead in a vain attempt to keep a growing headache at bay.

  "Yeah, but-"

  "Leyann, really, that's enough, we only have an hour till dark, and I want to make sure I'm not forgetting anything for when we go to the Twilight Temple," Zyte suddenly snapped. She was holding a pouch she had just finished filling with several shock, dew, and pyre crystals, and was clearly annoyed with Leyann as well. Both the sword Sillis had given her earlier and her father's sword were strapped to her back along with a small metal shield. Her bow and quiver sat off to the side in a chair, Zyte had taken the liberty of filling both her and Link's quiver with arrows. Putting the first pouch down onto the table, she picked up a second and put several bottles filled with pale purple liquid inside.

  Looking over at Link's raised eyebrow, she answered the question already in his mind. "Self-made healing potions, just pour a few drops on any cut or wound and they'll heal within seconds."

  "And why haven't you told Ksumber about this?"

  Zyte grimaced, "for it to work properly every bottle has to have a few drops of Dark Soaran blood in it, needless to say, I don't want him finding out how I discovered it."

  Oblivious to the stunned look on Link's face, she started looking around the room. "Now I know I'm missing something, but what could it be…" She started mumbling under her breath, naming what she already had. "Ah! Of course, now how could I forget that?" She hurried over to her bed and reached under the pillow, bringing out a silvery ocarina with a slight bluish tint.

  Brought out of his shocked state of mind, Link eyed the ocarina with obvious enthusiasm. "What's that made of?" he asked, noting how that ocarina seemed to changed color ever so slightly when Zyte turned it.

  "Moonstone, my father made it for me," Zyte said, clutching the ocarina to her chest, "I miss him, this ocarina reminds me him." Link could have sworn he saw a tear form in Zyte's eye, but when she blinked it was gone. She carefully put it into a small bag and attached it to her belt.

  "Well we might as well get going, it'd be nice even to have even a little bit of light when we reach the temple. And you haven't seen a sunset until you've seen it above the clouds," she said, giving Link a warm smile.

*******

 "Stupid Zyte," Akkao said moodily as he flung himself onto his bed. "And her stupid friend, humiliating me like that in front of Master Sillis."

  "Well you did challenge her, and the rules do say that if the challenged is unable to battle that someone else may take their place," his guardian told him.

  "Shut it Neogra, I don't need you stuffing that in my face too."

  Neogra sighed, Akkao was so stubborn sometimes, maybe a lecan fruit would cheer him up. With this thought in mind, Neogra turned and flapped out the open window, looking for a lecan tree with ripe fruit.

  Staring up at the ceiling, Akkao sighed, if only he was stronger, then he'd show them. At least the class wasn't there this time, like the first time, he could remember it like it was yesterday.

  The first week of sword class, Master Sillis had given each of them a certain number of techniques to learn, which they were then supposed to show in a practice battle that was to be closely monitored by Master Sillis, to make sure of no cheating or recklessness. Akkao, considering himself above the other students, had learned only a few of the ones assigned, and only the simplest ones at that. He was going to show the entire class how good he was, he almost felt sorry for whoever he was paired against. Of course he had told the entire class this, all of which had believed him, all but that stupid girl in green. She had warned him that he was going to be in for a rude awakening. But what did she know, he would have any opponent begging for mercy, and the rest of the class agreed with him, showing it by constantly by whispering threats to her as they passed, or trying to trip her up as she practiced.

  Then the day of reckoning had arrived, and who had he been paired up with but the girl in green. Sure that he was going to beat her, Akkao had charged forward, not bothering with any of the techniques he had learned, how good could a girl be anyway? He had been flung across the floor with the girl's first maneuver, who had apparently not only perfected the techniques given to her, but every technique the whole class had been assigned. Then, hearing the laughter that had echoed around the room, he had charged again, only to be flung to the floor again. Stopped from charging a third time by Master Sillis, he had angrily attacked his teacher, who merely caught the sword in his hand as Akkao swung it and wrenched it from his grip. The girl he had been paired up with that day had been Zyte.

  Akkao had been reprimanded severely by both Master Sillis and his own father because of this. Though he was allowed to continue to keep studying swordsmanship, he was always watched closer than all of the other students. That memory burned his blood at the mere thought of it. Though he had convinced the other students on how good he was by defeating them one by one, no matter how many times he fought Zyte, he would always lose. He had vowed that he would one day defeat Zyte and show how good he was, he would not give up. But every time he increased his skills it had seemed like Zyte had increased hers four times as much, and even more in the last two years. He would be more powerful then her one day, he just had to figure out how to get it.

  "If it is power you wish, then I can give you it," a voice whispered.

  Akkao sat bolt upright. "Who's there?"

  "Do you wish power? Power to defeat Zyte and any other that stands in your way? I can give you that."

  Akkao stood up, looking for the source of the voice. "Who's there? Why can't I see you?"

  "There is no need to see me. All I want to do is help you."

  "Yeah right, if that's the answer you're going to give me then I'm leaving."

  Akkao turned and started for the door of his room. But he had barely walked two steps when tendrils suddenly burst out of the floor and wrapped around his legs. Stopping his movement, the tendrils continued to climb up his body, binding his arms and wings before encircling his neck, threatening to choke him.

  "You will listen to me."

  "Alright, fine, I'm listening."

  The tendrils around his neck relaxed ever so slightly.

  "I can give you power, all the power you have ever wanted."

  "What's the catch?"

  "If you agree to my offer, you must bring me Zyte alive, I need her."

  "So if I promise to bring you Zyte, you'll give me the power to defeat her?"__

  "Yes."

  "Then you have a deal."

  The tendrils suddenly vanished like smoke, Akkao felt his wings losing their feathers and turn leathery. His fingers sprouted long claws while a long tail sprouted out of his back. He turned to look in his mirror, his eyes had turned from his usual light hazel to a bright blood red. He flexed his new claws, he had never felt so powerful in his entire life, he could feel it coursing through his very blood.

  "Hey Akkao! I brought you a lecan fruit, I hope you-" Neogra stopped in mid-sentence. "Wha- What happened to you?"

  Akkao grinned, showing off a pair of sharp, pointed fangs. "Hello Neogra," he said, his voice much deeper and darker sounding than before.

  "Akkao, what happened to you? What have you done?"

  He laughed, "what have I done? I now have power!"

  In one quick movement he was across the room. As Neogra raised his wings to get away, he lashed out with his claws. Neogra was flung across the room, dead before he hit the ground.

  "Zyte and her friend are currently heading to the Temple of Twilight, I suggest you go now if you want to beat them there."

  Akkao raised his hand to stare at the blood dripping down his claws.

  "Remember," the voice told him, "I want Zyte alive, but it doesn't have to be very alive."

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Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.


	7. The Temple of Twilight

Word of advice to my readers, never ever ever leave projects to the last minute, my stress has been so thick lately you could cut it with a knife. Anyway, bit of an announcement, I've revamped a few of the pervious chapters, just the usual drabble, fixed some errors, bettered the descriptions and fight scenes, stuff like that. And I want to apologize for the long wait, my internet provider went all funny, and I was without internet for a week, it was not fun.

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  They finally reached the temple as a last few rays of the dying sun were spreading across the clouds.

  Landing on top of the clouds, both Link and Zyte stared in wonder. It was truly a sight to behold, the structure's many towers and turrets bathed deep red. A rope bridge anchored to the towering cloud puffs on either side spanned across a section of clouds that was too thin to walk on, leading to a stretch of clouds before the vaulted entrance. A circular path ran around the base, snaking around itself at several points below the main structure before ending on a large platform seemingly held in place only by the path. Most particular about it however, was what it was made of. Unlike the other cloud buildings of the Light Soarans the temple seemed to be constructed entirely of different colored opaque crystals, sanded down to prevent the sun from reflecting off their surfaces.

  The first to recover from their initial shock, Link started walking toward the bridge, Zyte quickly followed to fall in step behind him.

  "Geez, this place is giant, what in Hyrule was it used for, and then of course there's the question of why people who can fly would need a bridge." Already starting across the rickety bridge, Link kept walking but turned his head slightly to hear her answer.

  "Well the bridge is for the older Light Soarans who can't fly or have been injured, but this place use to be a place of solitude for Seers, they'd come here to escape the noise of the village and try to see the future. There're still probably rooms full of prediction filled parchments. Course then the dragons came."

  Link stopped in his tracks, nearly causing Zyte to run into him. He whirled around to face her, his eyes wide with shock. "Dragons? You mean to tell me there are dragons hanging around here?"

  "Yeah, turned into a dragon roost two hundred years ago, that's why people stopped coming, a large amount of the parchments were saved though, we're still trying to translate all of them, that's what my mother…" Zyte stopped mid-sentence, as if the memory of her mother pained her greatly.

  Reaching the end of the bridge, Zyte continued forward ahead of Link when she suddenly let out a yelp and started to fall forward. Her arms wheeling to balance herself, she fell back heavily onto the clouds, wrenching her foot from where it had sunk through.

  Link, trying not to laugh at Zyte's near fall, hurried over while watching his footing. "You okay?" he asked as he reached her.

  "Yeah, just stumbled into a soft spot," she stood up and stuck out her foot, feeling the surface of the clouds. She started walking several feet to the left, still testing the clouds. "Here's the edge," she mumbled, "but no end." She turned around and walked in the opposite direction.

  "Um, what are you doing?"

  "Feeling for the edge, to see if we can just walk around it, but this one seems pretty big." Shaking her head, she turned to face the entrance and spread her wings wide. Flapping them once, she carefully watched the surface of the clouds.

  "Look," she said, pointing to the clouds before them. "See how much the surface stirs in this one big area? That's the soft spot, looks like it'd be easier just to fly over it."

  Nodding his head, Link flapped his wings and glided over the spot, Zyte quickly followed.

  Reaching the other side, Zyte took a quick look around their surroundings. "Keep your guard up, we haven't seen them yet, but the dragons will probably show up sooner or later."

  "Oh, there aren't any dragons anymore."

  Both Link and Zyte whirled to face the voice, only to find Akkao leaning against the wall in the shadow of a pillar.

  "Oh yes, they seemed to think I would make a tasty snack, rather annoying really, but I dealt with them." He held up one of his hands to look at it, as if mildly interested by the blood drying on his claws.

  "Akkao, what have you done to yourself?" Zyte asked, shocked at his appearance.

  He looked up at her, his hand apparently forgotten. "Oh would you like to know?" he asked in mock sweetness. He straightened up and flexed his wings. "You see, a voice came to see me, isn't that odd? Just a voice, no body, no face." He turned so his back faced them and crossed his arms under his wings. "You know what he said to me? He asked me if I wanted power," he gave a small laugh, "what kind of silly question is that anyway? Do you want power? Of course I agreed, and I was turned into this splendid form." He flicked his tail once before settling it back to the ground. "Of course he wanted something in return, care to know what?" He turned his head slightly so that one of his crimson colored eyes fell on Zyte, a wicked smile on his face, Zyte visibly tensed. "You see Zyte, he wants you."

  These words barely had time to register, as Akkao had whirled and come at them.

  Backhanding Link into the wall, he surged toward Zyte. Her hands instinctively went for her swords, but Akkao rammed into her. Stumbling backward Zyte was left completely open for an attack, which Akkao took full advantage of. Rushing forward Akkao's claws found Zyte's neck, he lifted her into the air, choking her as he did so. Zyte started to sputter, unable to draw breath, her hands clawed feebly at Akkao's hoping to make him loosen his grip.

  Akkao wasn't deterred, he grinned as he tightened his grip. "Why don't you just relax Zyte? Just stop struggling, I could knock you out the easy way."

  His only answer was increase of sputtering from Zyte, her wings started to flutter weakly, but it was obvious that she was losing the fight.

  Akkao smirked, "as you wish." It was then the light arrow hit him dead in the face.

  Screaming in pain, Akkao dropped Zyte and clutched at his face. Zyte quickly rolled away from him, drawing in deep breaths as she did so.

  Lowering his hands, Akkao turned to face Link, who was defiantly holding his bow with another one of the shining arrows drawn.

  "You will pay for that!" Akkao rushed toward him, his claws outstretched.

  Link quickly flapped his wings. Rising into the air he barely missed Akkao's enraged strike. Releasing the second arrow, it exploded on Akkao's shoulder.

  Screaming in pain once again, Akkao spread his wings at leaped of the cloud top after Link. Turning quickly to put some distance between them, Link suddenly felt Akkao's tail snake around his ankle. Whipping him back into the wall, Akkao smirked as Link slide down to the cloud, clearly stunned.

  Akkao then turned his attention back to Zyte, who was strangely nowhere to be seen.

  "Hiding are you? You won't be for long."

  As Link struggled to regain his composure, Akkao started to glide over the clouds, calling out Zyte's name as if they were playing some sort of game. Gliding over the soft spot, a yellow gem suddenly hurled itself out of the clouds and struck Akkao. He screamed in pain as lightning danced over his body.

  Zyte suddenly burst out of the clouds, both her swords drawn and a dangerous glint in her eyes. Crossing the swords before slashing outward, she left two long gashes of blood on Akkao's chest. Akkao struck out in retaliation, but Zyte blocked his attack with one sword while smashing his face with the side of the other.

  Slamming into the surface of the clouds, Akkao struggled to get back on his feet. As Zyte landed lightly on the surface he bared his claws once again. It was obvious that the two light arrows and chest wounds were getting to him, but he refused to back down.

  Turning to Akkao, Zyte slowly sheathed her swords. Closing her eyes, she turned her face skyward and spread her wings. Several bruises were rising lividly on Zyte's neck where Akkao had tried choke her, as well as tiny pinpricks of blood where his claws had bit into her skin. "I am sorry to have to do this to you Akkao, but you leave me no choice." Shadows started to encircle her, crisscrossing through the air and turning the clouds dark.

  Though momentarily stunned by the sudden appearance of shadows, Akkao quickly rushed forward. Jumping to strike Zyte with both his clawed hands, he was suddenly repelled by the wall the shadows now formed. Slammed backward, Akkao looked suddenly fearful.

  Zyte remained unfazed from Akkao's assault, protected by her barrier of shadows. Like before, the shadows closed in on her, enveloping her like a second skin. Her form grew only slightly, but other changes were soon apparent. From her back sprouted a long tail, which in turn grew a sickle-shaped blade. Her hands and feet became talon-like, each foot with one large claw topping them. Then her skull stretched and turned streamline, forming a large beak. Three horns appeared atop her head. The shadows melted away, leaving Zyte standing alone on the cloud top. Lowering her head, she opened her eyes and gazed at Akkao with an expressionless haunting gaze, her black eyes boring into him.

  The Dark Soaran Zyte had become opened its beak and let loose a bone chilling screech before rushing toward Akkao.

  Stumbling backward, Akkao had little choice but to try and block the attacks as they came. After Zyte had slashed with both her claws, Akkao took the opportunity to try and get a slash in at her neck. Twisting slightly to avoid the blow, Zyte retaliated by driving her horns into Akkao's arm. Screaming in pain, Akkao's crimson eyes took on the look of a person who knew they were going die. Taking advantage of Akkao's lapse of concentration, Zyte leaned back on her tail and struck out with her clawed feet. Striking Akkao square in the stomach, he was hurled backward. Though Link was expecting to see a large wound from the last attack, Akkao boasted no new one, it appeared that Zyte had kicked him with her claws curled inward. Dropping back to her feet, Zyte watched as Akkao struggled to return to his. Managing to get to his feet, Akkao gave one last look at Zyte before collapsing to the clouds.

  Zyte exhaled, her shoulders and head drooping, clearly exhausted. She looked up at Link, though her face didn't show it, he could clearly feel her sorrow. "I didn't want to, I really didn't." Her sincere tones were strangely distorted by the Dark Soaran's voice.

  "I'm sure you didn't," Link consoled, "but he didn't exactly give you much of a choice." Link turned his head to look at Akkao before looking back to Zyte. "Before the fight, didn't he say that someone wanted you?"

  Zyte nodded, "yeah, he did, what could have done that to him though?"

  Unbeknownst to them, Akkao was currently conversing with the very person inside his head.

  "So you couldn't even handle the capture of one person, I was wrong to place my trust in you, perhaps I should take away my gift."

  "No! Give me another chance, I can prove myself!"

  "I don't see how, you've already shown me how weak you really are."

  "Don't you dare take my power away from me. I will hunt you down and kill you if you do."

  The voice snickered, "if you couldn't defeat that weakling Shadow Twister of a girl you wouldn't have a chance with me."

  "Shadow Twister? She's a Shadow Twister?"

  "Yes my dear boy, did you not figure that out when she transformed into one of my Dark Soarans? Pitiful, say goodbye to your pathetic power."

  "No!"

  Link and Zyte twisted at Akkao's shout. Akkao was on his knees, staring at his hands. He had changed back to his normal self, and looked absolutely infuriated by it.

  Zyte started forward, "Akkao what were you-"

  "Get away from me freak."

  Zyte stopped in her tracks, the Dark Soaran's normally expressionless face lined with shock.

  Akkao stood up shakily, though his wounds were gone he was still clearly exhausted. "I always knew there was something weird about you, and now I know. A Shadow Twister, never would have guessed, you won't be able to show your face as soon as this gets out." With that he spread his wings and took off, his flying shaky.

  Snarling, Link spread his wings to go after him, but Zyte held out her arm, stopping him. Looking at her questionably, Zyte shook her head.

  "Let him go, there's not much point in trying to stop him. Even if we did catch him, we'd have to kill him to stop him. I don't want to do that." She turned and started for the arched doorway, her head lowered and giving off an aura of immense sorrow. "You never know, I could get use to living in solitude."

  Link hurried to plant himself in front of Zyte. She looked up at him, startled by his odd behavior. "Don't you dare talk like that, I won't allow it. You can't let yourself be pushed around by the likes of Akkao."

  "You don't understand Link, basically every Light Soaran is going to be out for my blood now. It doesn't matter that I haven't done anything wrong, they'll simply hate me for what I am."

  Link sighed, lowering his head before springing it back up. "I know! Why don't you live below the clouds? I'm sure lots of people would love to meet you. There's the Zora, the Goron, the Kokiri, and of course Malon would love to see you as often as you could manage it."

  A light smile alighted on the Dark Soaran's face. "You know, I think that's the first smart idea I've heard from you."

  "Hey," Link took on a look of fake hurt, "that was cruel." He stuck out his hand, "promise when this is over you'll come live down there."

  Zyte eyed his hand before gripping it with her own clawed one and giving it a firm shake.

  "Promise."

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Quick question, should the rating on this go up? I think it's starting to get a little bloody for the current rating, but I'd like other opinions on it.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.


	8. The Prophecy

Here it is, two a.m. in the morning, but I finished. Ah, the sweet smell of a new chapter is so refreshing, so enjoy^_^

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  Link's eyes struggled to adjust to the gloom of the temple, both Leyann and Navi's slight glow helped a little, but not much. The hallway they were in seemed encircle them completely in darkness, the fairy's glow barely reaching a foot in front of them. He was growing increasingly nervous from not being able to see, and the fact that Zyte was still in her Dark Soaran form didn't help.

  "Watch your step, there's a fallen block in the middle of the floor." She turned her head slightly so that Link could see one of her eyes glowing eerily in the dark, an involuntary shiver ran down his spine.

  Bumping his toe into the block Link carefully stepped around it. "This stinks, I can barely see my hand in front of my face, isn't there anything we can do?"

  "You think I like it? Dark Soaran eyes aren't much better than yours in the dark, I've been trying to find a pyre crystal bracket."

  "A what?"

  Zyte sighed, "they're always set up in dark places. They stick certain crystals in the walls and connect all of them to one central bracket. Stick a pyre crystal in the bracket and it lights every crystal in the section, soon as I find one we can get some light."

  "Great, how long will it take you to find one?"

  "Depends, might take an hour or- aha! Wait here a second, I'll be right back."

  Link heard Zyte's talons click on the floor as she walked away. With Leyann's slight glow steadily getting dimmer as Zyte walked farther he was left being able to see even less. Putting his hand against the wall to steady himself, Link suddenly felt something slither across his hand. Yanking it back in alarm, he tried to get a look at whatever it was, only to find it gone. Glancing down at the ground he saw several shadows slither past his feet in the same direction Zyte had gone. He realized Zyte must have returned to normal and relaxed a tiny bit.

  A sudden flare of light made him shut his eyes in pain. He waited a moment before reopening them, allowing the dots that flashed behind his eyelids to subdue.

  He looked up to find Zyte already walking down the hallway, Leyann flitting nervously around her face.

  "Hey! Wait up!" He hurried to catch up with her, but Zyte didn't stop or even slow down.

  Leyann suddenly turned from Zyte and flew down the hall toward him, Zyte continued to walk.

  "Link! Something's wrong with Zyte, she hasn't listened to a word I've said, and she has a really strange look in her eyes," Leyann sputtered out when she reached them.

  "What?!" He quickly looked back to Zyte, who had already reached the end of the hall, which was a junction where you could turn left or right. Not even pausing to look she turned right and continued down the hallway.

  "Zyte! Wait, come back here!" Link broke into a run after her, Navi and Leyann trailing behind him.

  Turning right at the end of the hall as well he barely saw Zyte as she again turned down another side hall. Running to catch up he took many twists and turns, barely keeping Zyte in his sights before entering a large vaulted room. Zyte was standing in front of a large door, seemingly in a trance.

  Walking up behind her Link put a hand on her shoulder, Zyte jumped and looked back at him.

  "What?"

  "Care to explain what that little walk was about?"

  "Walk?" She paused to look around at her surroundings. "How did I get here?"

  "Well do you remember anything?"

  "Not really, I remember putting the pyre crystal in the bracket, and then…" her forehead creased, "it felt like someone was next to me, I don't remember anything after that." She absentmindedly rubbed her neck, wincing slightly when she touched her bruises.

  Link in the mean time was examining the door. "Well whatever happened you came to this door, might as well see what's inside it." He gave the door a push, the hinges creaking in protest.

  The room beyond it had clearly been some sort of library at one point, but the many years of solitude had clearly not been good the texts that lined the tables and shelves. Several tables had been knocked over and there were many places that looked as if they had been set aflame.

  Link cautiously entered the room, his footsteps echoing on the dust covered floor. Walking over to one of the tables he reached out to touch one of the books that had been left out, only to find the pages crumble to dust.

  "Look at this place," Zyte breathed, "this entire library has been practically destroyed."

  Link continued to look through the books, trying to find one where the writing had not been blurred by the years. Finding one that didn't crumble to his touch, he opened it and scanned the first page, only to find the writing in an odd dialect he didn't understand. Choosing his words carefully, he turned to Zyte.

  "You said your mother was a translator of these texts, right? Any chance she taught you some?"

  Zyte nodded, "a bit, let's see what I can remember." Pulling the book toward her she began to flip through the pages, pausing every now and then as she skimmed a passage.

  "Let's see, this seems to be mainly predictions, like this one is about the great storm that happened a hundred years ago." She continued to flip through the pages, not bothering to look at many. "And these are a tad more recent, eighty-seven, seventy-two, fifty…" She turned back a page, "now this is odd, this Seer went from predictions over fifty years ago to this single one," her eyes narrowed as she read the date, "that is supposed to happen this year."

  "Well read it out loud, I'd like to hear what it says too."

  "Alright, I'll try as best as I can…

  An evil from ancient past has risen once more. Cursed to death by those he thought friends, he now seeks bitter revenge for his betrayal. His legions of dark are many, they prey on the light. But his power will not rain supreme, for one of cursed blood will rise against him. The cursed one will face him with a stranger not of this world, only to find the power they hold is not enough. When the dark is betrayed by one of its own, and blood has been shed by both sides, tears of stone will fall, sealing both light and dark away from the world. For only when the light has sealed itself away will the darkness be contained. As long as both the light and dark remain untouched and unsealed, the darkness will never be let forth."

  As Zyte read the last words of the passage the book crumbled to dust, leaving the both of them confused at what they had just read.

  "Well that was a cheery prediction," Link said sarcastically.

  Zyte nodded, "yeah, sounded more like a prophecy than a prediction," she shook her head, throwing loose Leyann, whose glow turned slightly red with annoyance, "I must have absorbed more of that stuff than I thought, I never remember learning that much." She turned to face the door they had come in. "Might as well get going and explore the rest of this temple."

  Zyte followed Link out the door and back into the large circular room. Casting her gaze here and there she suddenly stiffened.

  "Link! Whatever you do, don't make any sudden movements or loud noises," she hissed at him.

  "What? Why?" he asked, twisting his head to look at her.

  She flicked her eyes upward, staring at one of the pillars close to the ceiling. Following her gaze Link's eyes alighted on what had made Zyte so worried. Curled around a broken pillar was a monstrous black snake, its eyes closed in sleep. A pair of leathery wings curled around the upper half of its body. Two long thin fangs could be seen poking out of its mouth and an odd sort of frill was folded back against its head.

  This time it was Link's turn to be shocked. "What in the name of the goddesses is that?" he hissed back at Zyte.

  "An Otsu, I thought they went extinct."

  "Dangerous?"

  "Very, they can shadowsync, become one with the shadows, and those fangs are venomous, but-"

  A sudden feeling made her stop mid-sentence, like a wave of energy had passed through the room.

  The Otsu raised itself up, turning sleepily to stare at them. Zyte backed up slightly, her eyes showing a faint glimmer of fear. The Otsu suddenly let out a loud hiss, baring its fangs and extending the frill around its head. Its skin seemed to shimmer slightly as melted into the pillar's surface.

  Zyte spread her wings and leapt off the ground. "Off the ground! Now!"

  Link quickly followed suit, his feet barely off the ground when the Otsu's head burst through the floor where he had just been standing. Hissing at its miss, the Otsu sank back into the ground. Flapping to get away from the floor Zyte brought out her bow and drew an arrow, constantly watching the walls for the slightest movement. Moving to bring out his own bow, Link was left completely open when the Otsu burst out of the wall near him. Startled Link moved backward, expecting to feel the fangs sink into him. Then he heard the Otsu hiss in pain, Link looked up to see an arrow sticking out of its side. Link then decided against using his bow, seeing how fast it could move, and instead opted for his sword. The Otsu again sank into the wall.

  Link groaned, "this thing only appears to attack, otherwise it hides in the walls."

  "Let me try and draw it out, get ready to attack." She lowered her bow and closed her eyes, her wings flapping slowly. Link moved in closer to Zyte and started drawing power into his sword, he was not going to let this thing strike her, not with its venom. "I'll tell you when to move Zyte." She nodded to show that she understood.

  The Otsu burst out of the wall, heading straight for Zyte.

  "Now!"

  Zyte gave her wings a flap to move out of Link's way. The last thing the Otsu saw was Link's glowing sword as it shredded into its skin. The Otsu shrieked in pain, but not before it had flapped its leathery wings one last time after Zyte. Not expecting something like this to happen Zyte didn't have time to get away. Rearing its scaly head, the Otsu sank its fangs into Zyte shoulder and vanished into a puff of black smoke.

  Zyte gasped in pain, her flight began to falter. She held up her hand to grasp her shoulder, her flapping growing steadily weaker. Her eyes slowly closed, she stopped flapping and began to fall.

  "Zyte!" Link dove, barely managing to catch her before she hit the ground. He carefully set her on the floor and gave her other shoulder a shake, trying to wake her. She didn't give any sign that she had even felt Link's hand, he had failed to keep her safe.

  "Leyann! Isn't there anything to help her with? An antidote?"

  Leyann's wings drooped slightly, "no, we'll just have to wait until she wakes up."

  "Wha- Wakes up? You mean she's not poisoned?"

  "That's what she was about to tell you before the Otsu woke up, Otsu venom knocks you unconscious, that's when they kill you, when you can't fight back."

  Link looked back at Zyte. "How long will it take?"

  Leyann flitted up and down for a quick second. "To be honest, I don't know…"

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Yes, I know, the evil cliffhanger, just wait, the next chapter's going to be a good one, I promise.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.


	9. The Dream

Ok, I just had to mention this, Dream][Walker3, your review brought a smile to my face, and those have been few and far between for me lately, so I wanted to thank you for brightening my day a bit^_^

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  Zyte awoke with a start, she had felt a very odd feeling, like she had been floating without the support of her wings, it was a very unsettling feeling for a person who was so use to flying with their wings. Rubbing the darkness from her eyes she sat up, blinking at her unfamiliar surroundings.

  "What the…"

  She cautiously stood up, the clouds beneath her bending slightly beneath her weight. She turned this way and that, trying to figure out where she was.

  "I was just in the Temple of Twilight with Link, how'd I get out here? That couldn't have been a dream, or…" She touched her shoulder experimentally, wincing when her fingers passed over the tender bite marks.

  "Well that's settled, now where the-" Zyte suddenly whirled around, she had a weird feeling that someone was watching her.

  "Leyann?" she called out, "if that's you you'd better come out, this isn't funny."

  Zyte's ears prickled, hearing a faint laugh, feeling most certain that it was Leyann's laugh, a trill that was unique to her and her alone.

  Zyte started to move toward the sound, the clouds trembling under each footfall. She turned around a puff of cloud sticking out of the main mass and stopped in shock.

  Leyann was sitting on top of the clouds laughing up a storm, while an eight year old Zyte was rubbing a large red welt caused by slipped strike with a practice sword.

  "Stop laughing Leyann, it wasn't funny, that technique is hard enough without you deciding to start throwing seeds at me."

  Leyann could barely stop laughing to respond. "I couldn't help it, you've been acting way to tense lately, you need to loosen up."

  "That doesn't give you the right to start throwing seeds at me, especially while I'm practicing!"

  "But you were just begging- Hey, wait a minute, what are you doing with that bottle?"

  Zyte had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Her younger self had marched over to the fairy, grabbed her by her wings and stuffed her into the bottle. Twisting the lid shut she held it up at eye level, watching Leyann as she buzzed angrily against the glass.

  "Hey! Let me out! This isn't fair!"

  "No one said it was fair, you'll stay in there until I'm done practicing."

  Leyann's form turned bright red with anger as Zyte set her down next to her pack and picked up her practice sword. Walking a bit away from the pack she fell into a stance that made the particular technique a whole lot easier to perform. She had just raised her sword when she was startled out of her concentration by someone calling her name.

  Her younger self gave an annoyed sigh, "I'm over here!"

  "What? Don't you want to see your father?"

  The older Zyte whirled around, staring blankly at the Light Soaran who was gliding toward them.

  "Father?" she managed to squeak out, it really was him.

  Her father landed and began to walk toward her younger self, a large smile on his face. His yellow pyre lizard soon followed, swooping through Zyte like she was a mere shadow to settle on her younger self's shoulder.

  "Hello Xianjii, how are you today," she said, scratching the particular spot on his neck where he always liked always liked to be scratched. Xianjii started to croon, his eyes closing in pleasure. She looked up into her father's face, "hello father, what did you want me for?" she asked.

  He smiled, "always to the point I see," he paused and looked around, "where's Leyann?"

  "In a bottle, she was throwing seeds at me while I was trying to practice."

  "You put her in-," his hand went to his forehead, "I don't know what to do with you sometimes Zyte."

  "Well she asked for it."

  "I'm sure, be sure to let her out when you're done. But right now I have something for you." He undid a small pouch from his belt and held it out to her.

  Curiosity lined her face as she took the pouch and undid the string. Reaching into the bag she brought out a silvery ocarina with a slight blue hue.

  Zyte gasped, "oh, it's beautiful, thank you!" She gave her father a large hug, the ocarina still grasped in her hand. "You will teach me how to play it, won't you?"

  "Of course, when would you like to begin?"

  "Right now! That is if you're able to."

  "Alright, let's start with one of my favorites, the ancients called it Srelo ye Osyxr. Now first of all you want to hold your ocarina like this…"

  Zyte sighed, she remembered this day, the Srelo ye Osyxr had become her favorite song as well, even if she hadn't been able to translate the title. She was sure she had heard those words recently though, if only she could remember where. Her hand absentmindedly went to the pouch at her waist as she thought about it.

  "Ah, music, truly one of the finest achievements of any race."

  Zyte whirled around, her hand grasping the hilt of one of her swords. Needless to say she was rather shocked when the speaker turned out to be a very old looking Light Soaran leaning heavily on a cane.

  The old man chuckled, "sorry to startle you m'dear."

  Zyte quickly withdrew her hand from her sword. "I should be the one apologizing, I almost drew my sword on you!" She bent into a hasty bow, "please forgive my actions."

  "Not to worry my child, you don't need to be so formal to one such as me."

  Zyte rose from her bow but keep her head lowered in respect. "I was taught to respect my elders."

  "Ah, you may have been taught respect toward your elders, but as a mere spirit I don't require such formalities."

  Zyte's head snapped up in shock, a glimmer of fear in her eyes. "A spirit? I'm not… dead, am I? I thought Otsu venom only…"

  The old name shook his head, "No, no m'dear, this is only a dream. I, however, am quite real."

  "A dream, that would explain why…"

  The younger Zyte blew a few notes from the ocarina as the memory behind them continued.

  "Ah, I always did like that song, I take it you do remember it?" The old man looked questioningly at her.

  "Of course I- Hey wait a minute, how'd you get in my mind anyway?"

  The old man coughed, "well I was the one that brought you to the library in the first place."

  Zyte's eyes narrowed, "thanks for asking permission to use my body," she said coolly, a bit of her temper showing through.

  "And I was the one who awoke the Otsu."

  "WHAT!"

  The old man cringed as Zyte started to shout, barely making sense of the words being sent forward.

  "Sent an Otsu on us… Link and I could have been killed, oh what I would do if I could shadow twist in a dream." She began to mutter in the ancient tongue, sending several vile words his way.

  "Shadow twister indeed young one, it is your ability that landed you if such trouble in the first place."

  She rounded on him, her eyes livid. "You think I asked for this? This curse that isolated me from every being I have and ever will know."

  "And yet this 'curse' has brought you a friend, kept you safe, given you strength in times of need."

  Zyte fell silent at this, it was true after all.

  "And this ability has also brought you to the attention of one to be most feared, for he is the very reason the Dark Soarans exist. Perhaps you need to see that day again, if only to show you his power, and how he knows of you." He gave a wave of his hand.

  They were transported from outside in bright sunlight to inside her home with a few pale rays of the sun showing of the walls.

  "No, not this, not this day," Zyte moaned, taking a step backward from where her thirteen year old self was waiting impatiently for her father. Leyann floated tranquilly around her head.

  "Come on father, the sun's already risen."

  "I'm coming, your mother wanted to tell us goodbye."

  Her father entered the room, Xianjii draped sleepily across his shoulder. Soon after came her mother, Nochara, the light blue kytel that served as her mother's guardian, fluttered in to land on the back of a chair. Her mother walked over to Zyte and handed her a cloak. She leaned forward and kissed Zyte's forehead.

  "You be careful, my precious Zyte."

  "I will mother, don't worry," she replied, giving her a hug.

  Her mother straightened up with a smile. She turned to her husband and went to give him a kiss as well when Xianjii suddenly straightened up and hissed. Taken aback by this sudden display of aggressiveness her mother stepped backward.

  "Xianjii, what is the meaning of this?" her father asked the pyre lizard. Xianjii gave another hiss and swooped off his shoulder and out the room.

  The older Zyte suddenly noticed a jet black gerahk perched on the windowsill watching the happenings inside. She had never remembered seeing it before when this day had happened two years ago.

  "Father where's Leyann?" the younger Zyte asked suddenly, both she and Nochara had disappeared from view, "what's going on?"

  Her mother suddenly screamed. She fell to her knees, her hands clutching her head in pain. Feathers started to fall from her wings. Claws were starting to form on her fingers while her skin was growing scales.

  "Mother!" Zyte cried, rushing forward. But her father grabbed Zyte, pulling her back.

  "Run Zyte! Run now!" he cried, drawing his sword.

  "What are you doing father? Don't hurt mother!" she cried, struggling against her father's arm.

  A snarl stopped her struggling. She turned her face toward the spot where her mother had been, only to find a Dark Soaran rising to its feet from the floor, tearing away the few strands of cloth that had not already be shredded away. The Dark Soaran turned its eyes on them, a growl in its throat.

  Her father placed himself in front of her. "Go Zyte, run now."

  The Dark Soaran her mother had become leapt from the floor at her. Her father pushed her backward, bringing up his sword to block the assault. Zyte shrank against the wall, too terrified to move as she watched her father swap blows with the Dark Soaran.

  Her father suddenly screamed, his sword falling with a loud clunk to the floor. His body was silhouetted against the window, casting a shadow on Zyte. He did not fall to the floor as her mother had, but instead arched his back and screamed, screamed so loud that older Zyte covered her ears in pain. Feathers started falling in droves as his wings turned leathery. Scales rippled across his skin while claws shredded through his boots. A long tail sprouted out of his back while his clawed hands tore at his shirt. The last thing to change was his face, three horns burst forward while his head turned streamline. He stopped screaming as his eyes turned dark with greed and malice. He gave his beak an experimental click. The Dark Soaran her mother had become moved closer to him, hissing what sounded some like sort of order. The creature that used to be her father glanced over toward Zyte, hissing and clicking its beak in annoyance.

  The Dark Soaran her mother was leaped at her, its talons ready to slice into her. Zyte screamed and closed her eyes, a look of deep concentration on her face. Just as the Dark Soaran neared her a sudden burst of shadows appeared, swallowing them both. The remaining Dark Soaran backed up slightly in surprise, its dark eyes showing the slightest hint of confusion. The black gerahk perched on the windowsill looked surprised as well, and, oddly enough, strangely excited.

  The shadows withdrew then, leaving a startled looking Dark Soaran on its knees. Her father drew near it, hissing and snarling, as if trying to talk to it. Its head suddenly snapped around, a voice could be heard outside. The Dark Soaran bolted to the window, barely missing the gerahk in its haste to get outside. A cry of surprise was heard, soon followed by a call for her mother and father.

  "Tyrin! Asrya! If you're there answer! Is anyone hurt?"

  Zyte in the mean time was still on the floor, staring at her clawed hands as if disbelieving.

  "What has happened to me…" she whispered, "what have I become?" Tears began to slide down her cheeks, falling silently to the floor below.

  Zyte snapped her head up as she heard someone enter the house, calling her parents names. Her eyes went back to her hands in fear.

  "No! I can't let them see me like this! Please, let me change back!"

  She staggered backward into a corner, sliding down to the floor she buried her face into her claws and began to sob, not noticing the shadows that had started to slither across her legs. She was covered in shadows a second time, only this time emerging from them as a Light Soaran.

  Sillis suddenly burst into the room, looking around wildly. He noticed Zyte and rushed over to her, kneeing down in front of her he grasped her shoulders.

  "Zyte are you alright? Where are your parents?"

  Zyte looked up at him from her hands, "they're gone…"

  "Gone where?"

  Zyte buried her head into her hands again, "they are Dark Soarans now."

  "Both of them?"

  "Both." A wave of fresh sobs followed this statement.

  The black gerahk fluffed its feathers, an expression close to a smirk on its face. It silently opened its wings and took off, going in the same direction, the older Zyte assumed, as her father.

  "Enough! Why do you make me go through these memories again?" Zyte suddenly burst.

  "Very well," the old man waved his hand again, Zyte was surrounded by total darkness.

  "You saw it, did you not? The black gerahk?" The old man's voice seemed to echo around her.

  "Yes, I saw it."

  "That is why he knows of your power, that gerahk is his eyes and ears in the world. He is very interested in you m'dear, very interested indeed."

  "But why? Why is he interested in me?"

  "He wants your power child, and the only way to get it is to drain it from you, but to do that would kill you." His voice seemed to be growing fainter by the moment.

  "Wait! Who wants it? What do the Dark Soarans have to do with any of this?"

  "I am sorry m'dear, but the venom is losing hold of your body, I must say this quickly," his voice was barely a whisper now, "remember the tears of stone."

  Zyte awoke with a start. She sat up, breathing heavily, looking around at her surroundings. She was still on the chamber where they had fought the Otsu. She looked down at her legs, noticing how warm she was, finding that she had been covered in what appeared to be a traveler's cloak.

  "Link? Leyann?"

  She heard soft breathing nearby and turned around. Link was sitting of the ground, his back leaning against the wall. His legs were curled to his chest and his head resting on his knees, he was clearly asleep. A fairy rested on both his shoulders, which caused Zyte to give a small smile. Leyann normally never warmed up to anyone, but there she was, asleep on Link's shoulder.

  A tiny bit of hazy sunlight suddenly peeked in through on of the windows near the ceiling. Zyte suddenly felt claustrophobic, like she had to get out of this room. Rising to her feet she quietly opened her wings and gave them a flap. Nearing the top of the room she settled onto one of the windowsills, this would have to do for the moment. She felt her ocarina bump against her leg. She brought it out of its bag to stare at its shiny surface. One little song couldn't hurt, could it? She brought the small wind instrument to her lips and began to play, feeling her worries melt into the song.

  Link woke up drowsily. Stretching his arms and yawning he stood up, dislodging the two fairies from his shoulders. He stared around blankly, wondering what had woken him up. Glancing over to where Zyte was he was suddenly wide awake, she wasn't there.

  "Zyte?" he called worriedly.

  Link heard a few soft notes slow and stop, he wondered why he hadn't heard them earlier.

  "Up here!"

  Link looked up to see Zyte waving at him from one of the windowsills. He breathed a sigh of relief and spread his wings to join her.

  "And just what do you think you're doing up here?" he asked as he hovered near the window.

  "Just getting some fresh air, I get claustrophobic if I spend too much time inside."

  "Oh, you sure you're alright?" he asked, noticing how pale her skin was.

  Zyte absentmindedly fingered her ocarina. "Yeah, just had a bad dream." She considered telling Link what the old man had said, but dismissed the idea, she didn't want to worry Link more than he already was. Instead she put on a bright smile, "ready to see what else is in this temple?"

  Link put on a smile as well, "yeah, let's go!"

  Back on the ground Link carefully folded up his cloak and placed it back in his pack. His sword and shield were already strapped to his back. Turning he caught sight of Zyte, who was apparently trying to strap her shield on while at the same time trying to avoid Leyann's excited bouncing. Link gave a small chuckle, for the last ten minutes Leyann had been telling Zyte how glad she was that she was okay, even if she knew that she had just been unconscious. That little thing sure was protective.

  Zyte finally managed to get her shield strapped to her back. "Alright, let's go!" she said, flashing Link a smile and starting to walk toward the entrance. Link then noticed the pole on the ground angling slightly to precariously hold up another pole, which in turn was precariously holding up a large bowl full of rainwater, and Zyte was heading right for it.

  "Zyte watch out for that-"

  SPLASH

  "pole…"

  Zyte was completely soaked, the look on her face bordering between fuming rage and complete insanity. She reached up and brushed a few sodden locks of hair out of her face, which resolutely fell back to her face. She peered over at Link through her sodden hair.

  "You know what Link? I am really starting to hate this place."

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Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.


	10. Taken

Sorry for the long wait everyone, I've been swamped with stuff for the last couple weeks, but before they chapter, I first must take care of this, how could you suggest me doing something like 1 and 2 Magicsprite? I like bugs! Yeah, I know some people right now are probably thinking, wait a minute, this author is a girl, and she likes bugs? I can't help it, I think bugs are cute. Anyway, there is some reasoning behind why the last chapter ended like that. While I was writing the last few paragraphs I was drinking a glass of ice water. And just as I was getting one last sip the whole lot of crushed ice fell right on my face, getting freezing cold ice in one's eyes is not fun. But then I thought, hmm, this chapter was a little sad, maybe if I add something like this it could end on a light note. Anyway, moral of the story, never tip one's glass too far toward one's face unless one wants their face full of ice, or something like that^_^

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  A dark figure stood in front of a window, staring out at the clouds, sunlight seemed to periodically shine through him for brief moments, like holes had opened up in his skin. Folding his hands behind his back the figure turned its head to look at the black Gerahk cowering on the floor behind it.

  "I am starting to get irritated Zannat, you told me that girl would be in my hands by now."

  "I am sorry Master, the girl has proved to be more powerful than I thought."

  "Indeed," the figure turned back toward the window, "perhaps she is too much for you? I could just as easily kill you and go after her myself."

  Zannat's head snapped up. "No Master! I can get her! Give me one more chance, I beg of you!"

  "Very well, one more chance, but only because I don't want to hear you begging for mercy. And bring some of the Soarans with you this time, a few are growing violent with the lack of victims, they might be of use to you."

  "I will not fail you Master, I assure you."

  Zannat flapped his wings, eager to get as far away from his Master as he could.

  "Ah, Zannat, aren't you forgetting something?" The figure turned and walked to a nearby basin of water. Waving one hand over its surface the water began to shimmer and seethe, forming an image in its depths.

  "There is the matter of that boy with her, there is an odd aura around him, one I have not felt before. But he is skilled, making your task more difficult," he traced a finger in the water, "we will need to separate them."

  "How do you suggest I do that Master?"

  "Leave that to me, just be ready to attack when she appears, she will be in the rainfall shrine."

  "The rainfall shrine? Are you sure that is wise Master? With what's in there?"

  "You will do as you're told Zannat, do not question my reasoning."

  "Yes Master! I will be ready for her, and I will send one of the Soarans to tell you when I have her." With that Zannat quickly turned and left before any more faults with his plan could be found.

  The figure turned and went back to the window. Gazing out at the clouds again he stretched a hand toward the open window, only to pull it back when a large bolt of electricity arched toward him.

  "You'd better get her this time Zannat, I grow increasingly tired of this prison."

*****  

  Zyte shook her head, clearly frustrated.

  "This is ridiculous! How far does this stupid hallway go?"

  Link had to agree with her on this one, they had been walking down the same hallway for the past twenty minutes. No doors lined the sides, otherwise they would have taken one by now.

  "You tell me, it was your ancestors that built this place."

  Zyte gave him a look that clearly told him not to provoke her on this, she was still livid from the drenching she had received earlier and was now extremely irritated with this.

  Link quickly held up his hands in a sign of defeat. "Alright, alright, no big deal, just don't go psycho on me."

  "Ha, very funny."

  Link stopped, "okay, let's think about this, would it be better to keep going down this hallway even though it has no end in sight or turn around and try one of the other halls?"

  "Right now that second option is looking good." Zyte went to lean against the wall but ended up plunging straight through it. Link heard a groan and something scrap across the ground as Zyte stood up. Poking her head through the illusion she looked at Link with a look close to bewilderment on her face. "Umm… you have an explanation for why I just fell through a wall, right?"

  Link could have smacked himself, "of course, invisible doors, why didn't I think of that?"

  Zyte watched as Link turned and looked down the hallway, one of his eyes was red while the other was blue, he turned and looked down the other way.

  "Wow, pure luck you fell through, this is the only door in the entire hall." His eyes abruptly turned back to normal.

  "Explanation please," Zyte said, gesturing first to the door and then to Link's eyes.

  Link stepped forward and stuck his hand through the wall. "A simple illusion, but very effective for keeping someone out, you wouldn't know to look unless you knew it was there," he raised his hand and pointed at his face, "as for these, lens of truth, let's me see through trickery and illusions like that, also very useful when dealing with invisible monsters." He stepped through the wall and took a quick glance around with his red and blue eyes. "Another hallway, least this one has some direction, but with one illusion door there're bound to be others, and having to check all the time will be seriously draining on my magic supplies."

  "Well, I might be able to help, it's not infallible, but it might help, and even if it is successful some my other senses might be a little dulled."

  "And what would that be?"

  Zyte stuck her hand into the illusion and twirled her fingers through it, as if she was trying to feel the illusion itself, Link of course thought it was a little absurd, but if Zyte knew what she was doing, he might as well let her do it, whatever it may be. "Light Soarans are very sensitive to changes in the atmosphere, if I can hone in on the energy this gives off I might be able to tell when we're getting near one, just give me a second."

  Zyte felt around the edges of the wall, looking for anything that might speed up her focus. Finding one particularly strong spot she cupped her hand around it and closed her eyes, focusing as hard as she could to memorize the energy it gave off.

  Zyte stood that way for nearly a full minute, and just as Link was about to tap her on the shoulder her eyes snapped open. "Got it, that was a tricky little energy pattern, likes to fluctuate a lot." She gazed at the wall, her eyes moving from the floor to the ceiling. "Yep, gives off a very faint aura, but I can feel it." She turned back to Link, "ready to go?"

  "If you are, all your senses okay? Or did you weaken one?"

  Zyte held up a hand to Leyann's floating form. "I can't feel the energy given off by living things quite as well, just hope we aren't ambushed."

  "Then I guess I'll just have to pay more attention," Link said, flashing a smile at Zyte. Zyte managed to keep her face straight and smiled back.

  "Well if that's over with can we get going now?" Leyann suddenly said, the slightest hint of a whine in her voice.

  Zyte shot her a look of impatience, "very well, _your majesty._"

  Zyte's teasing was met with a slight glow of red from Leyann, "that's not funny, I don't pick on you."

  "Oh really? Then why'd you throw seeds at me that one time when I was practicing, or did you think I'd forgotten about that?"

  Laughing at the oddly colored glow that Leyann now emitted, Zyte started walking down the hallway, her hand touching the wall every so often.

  "Throwing seeds at her while she was practicing? Leyann, I'm appalled," Link said, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

  Leyann gave an annoyed sigh and hurried to catch up with Zyte. Link quickly followed, falling in step beside her.

  "Anything else you want to tell me?"

  "Huh?"

  "You shock me more and more often with one thing or another, so why don't you just tell me now if there's anything else I should know."

  "Okay, what do you want to know about?"

  "Anything, your history, monsters that live only up here, even the Dark Soarans, just tell me about them."

  Link listened patiently as Zyte talked, interrupting only when he had a question. Zyte was just starting to tell him about the Dark Soarans when she stopped suddenly and backed up against the wall, fear lining her face.

  "What is it? What's wrong?" Link exclaimed, slightly taken aback by her sudden change in behavior.

  Zyte started looking around wildly, "there is something evil here, very evil," she murmured.

  Link unsheathed his sword, "can you sense where it is? Anything at all."

  Zyte shook her head, "nothing, just a radiating evil."

  Link kept his eyes and ears open, alert for the slightest sign of movement.

  Zyte suddenly gave a small gasp, turning her head to look down the hall. "It's down there, that's where the evil is coming from."

  Link readied his sword, "wait here." He started to move down the hallway, switching his view to the lens of truth, he wasn't about to be ambushed by an invisible enemy.

  "Link, what's that noise?"

  He stopped moving and strained his ears to pick up what Zyte had heard. It was a soft sort of whooshing, along with a click like claws on stones. Link suddenly realized his mistake.

  Link whirled around, "Zyte! Move!" he shouted, rushing back to her.

  Zyte took a step backward, but it was too late. There was a loud whoosh, and a Wall Master fell from the ceiling. Zyte screamed as the disembodied hand pinned her arms and wings to her body in its fist and disappeared.

  "Zyte!" Leyann screamed, and started weaving in the air frantically, desperate to find out what had happened.

  Link slammed his fist against the wall. "Damn it!" he cursed.

  "Ohhh, Zyte, where did she go, I can't sense her at all, I feel so helpless," Leyann sputtered out.

  "Navi! Can you sense her? Anything at all?"

  Navi was silent for a second. "Barely, I can just make her out, I might be able lead us there, just maybe, but she is hard to pick out among everything in here."

  It took Link a second to understand what Navi had said. "Everything? Exactly what else is in here Navi?"

*****

  The Wall Master that had grabbed Zyte deposited her roughly onto the floor before skittering back up the wall. Zyte quickly staggered to her feet. She winced as she moved, that thing had left several gashes from its nails on her arms and she could feel bruises starting to form. Glancing around the rather large room she noted the abundant amount of broken and shattered statues, many missing heads, arms, even entire torsos. Shelves lined the walls, many large enough to sit on. She then noticed the shrine on the other side, it was set up so that rainwater fell from hole near the top of the ceiling and trickled down several rocks to a pool below. A stone walkway led across the pool to a platform in the middle. On that platform was a pedestal, which upon it sat a shimmering blue-green crystal that almost seemed to be moving on the inside. It was radiating a very odd form of energy, and Zyte longed to get closer and see what it was.

  But just as Zyte had taken a step toward it a sudden snarl stopped her in her tracks. Whirling at the noise she faced one of the shelves to find a Dark Soaran hissing at her. She was suddenly aware of all the snarls around her, as each Dark Soaran made itself aware to her. Then the black gerahk settled onto to one of the headless statues and smirked at her.

  "Master has been very interested in you my dear, very interested indeed…"

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I know, I'm evil. I now await your protests against the evil cliffie^_^

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.


	11. A New Form

There is one little thing I want to get off my chest before I start. ER??? What in the heck does that mean? Er, it was good? Er, it sucked? What? What? What? *sigh* I am so confused.

*glares* And you know who I'm talking to.

Anyway.

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  "Left!"

  Link turned sharply around the corner, his feet sliding slightly across the floor due to the fact he didn't slow down a drop to take it. Navi had said she had felt at least ten Dark Soarans in the same general area as Zyte, and some other extremely dark presence elsewhere in the temple.

  Link came upon another three way passage. "Which way?"

  "Straight!" This time it was Leyann who shouted the direction, "I can feel her now!"

  Link continued going straight. "Either of you know if Zyte's ok?"

  Both fairies were silent. Link skidded to stop to turn and face them, only to find that both of them were frozen to the spot.

  "Well? Answer me!"

  The color seemed to drain from Leyann's form, "I can't feel her, nothing, nothing at all."

  "Leyann what happened to her?"

  "She's not there, I can't feel her." Leyann continued to stutter, not noticing Link had asked her a question.

  "She was there one moment, and then she was gone the next, I can't feel a shred of her mind, like she was just snuffed out," Navi whispered.

  "She can't be." Link whispered.

  Tiny sparkling tears started falling from Leyann, she floated slowly to the ground. "I have failed, protect your partner, that's all I was told to do, protect your partner no matter what, and now I've failed even that."

  "Leyann."

  "I was always the oddball guardian, a lone fairy in a sea of many, I thought I would never get a partner. But then one day I felt her, that first blissful moment when you first feel their presence, I was so happy. But then when I found her, I was so worried, what if she hated me? I wasn't a pyre lizard or a kytel, I was a stupid fairy. But then she turned out to be different too, we, we were a perfect match, each of our souls completed the others, and now I've lost her!" Leyann dissolved into her sobs.

  "Leyann snap out of it!" Navi burst, "there's still a chance!"

  Leyann was silent for a moment, shocked by Navi's sudden outburst, "you, you're sure?"

  "Yes, I still know where the room Zyte's in is, if we hurry we might still be able to save her."

  Leyann rose shakily from the ground, "then what are we standing around here for? Let's go!"

  "Right." Navi turned to Link, "ok, just three more straights, a right, one more straight, and a left, that's the room."

  Link nodded, "then let's go." He turned and started running, the fairies trailing closely behind him.

*****

  Just a few minutes later Link burst into the room. His blood was pounding in his ears and he was gasping for breath, but he was here.

  His eyes wandered around the room for a moment, taking in the various broken statues while still looking for any signs of Zyte.

  "Zyte? Are you here?"

  He unsheathed his sword as a precaution and began to walk through the statues, alert of any movement. The fairies floated near him, utterly silent as they too looked. Link suddenly slipped, looking down he found he that he had stepped in a small dark pool of blood.

  "Zyte?" he called again, this time with a tinge of urgency in his voice.

  Leyann in the mean time had wandered away from the two, nervously flitting here and there looking for Zyte.

  Link suddenly heard Leyann scream. "Leyann?" He hurried in the direction of her scream.

  When he reached the spot, Link nearly dropped his sword in shear disbelief. Zyte was sprawled across the floor, her swords lying several feet away from her. The entire left side of her face was covered blood from a gash on her forehead, and she was bleeding from various other cuts, some small, and some serious looking. One of her wings had a long gash running down the back, which had probably hurt so much she couldn't fly. Link was about to bow his head in respect when he could have sworn he saw her move. He looked again, her wings trembled slightly as she breathed in. She was still alive!

  "Leyann! She's still alive, she's breathing!"

  "She is! Zyte you're ok!" Leyann, who was crying with joy now, darted toward Zyte.

  There was a sudden screech and a black blur shot toward Leyann. Barely missing the creature's talons Leyann shrieked and darted back to Link, nervously hovering around his shoulder from the near miss.

  The creature landed on a headless statue overlooking Zyte, where Link could get a good look at it. The creature turned out to be a pitch black gerahk, its evil yellow eyes seeming to bore into Link's soul.

  "Annoying boy, trying to take away Master's prize when Zannat wasn't looking, Master warned me about you, yes he did." Link steadied his sword, something told him that something very bad was about to happen.

  The gerahk continued on, oblivious to Link's change in position. "That girl was hard to get, she was, took out six Soarans before the remaining four decided to all attack at once," the gerahk smirked, "watching her pain was worth it though, Zannat thinks." The gerahk suddenly looked up at Link, annoyance lining his feathered face, "Zannat doesn't like people trying to steal hard-earned things from Master, Zannat should teach you a lesson." The gerahk's face took on a look of giddy delight. "Yes! Zannat will get rid of you, Zannat will make Master proud!"

  Zannat opened his wings wide and started growing. Link backed up, this was not good.

  Zannat continued to grow, black feathers melting into black scales. His beak turned into a gaping maw of teeth. Clawed forelegs grew from his chest as his taloned feet grew thick and bulky with muscles. His black tail feathers twisted together and lengthened further, forming a scaly black tail. The wings on his back were now larger and featherless, but still held their claws. The only thing that remained of him were his great yellow eyes, eyes that seemed to burn with an inner fire of vengeance. His transformation complete, Zannat looked down at Link, he was now an immense black dragon, and looked ready to dish out some pain.

  "Zannat will make you pay!" he roared, drawing in a deep breath. The air took on a slightly sulphuric hint and Link dove to the side, barely missing the jet of fire that streamed from Zannat's mouth.

  "You will not get away from Zannat that easily!" Another stream of fire shot at Link.

  Link dodged again, but this was no good, he could keep dodging forever, sooner or later he would get hit. A sudden thought in his mind, he quickly sheathed his sword and brought out his bow. Bringing out an arrow he quickly summoned ice to its tip and took aim at Zannat.

  The dragon laughed, "foolish boy thinks an arrow can hurt Zannat? Zannat will destroy him!"

  Zannat opened his mouth again, and at that precise moment Link let the arrow fly. Striking the roof of Zannat's open mouth it froze his entire mouth and throat solid. Zannat screamed in pain at this new predicament, during which Link took the chance to fire another arrow, which hit one of Zannat's wings and froze it solid. Just as Link was grabbing another arrow Zannat rushed toward him, his frozen mouth ready to crush Link.

  Link stumbled backward, but it was too late, Zannat was almost on top of him. Just as Zannat's jaws were about to snap shut a loop of shadows appeared, pulling back Zannat's head and closing his jaw shut. Another loop wrapped around his neck, while more slithered around his legs and wings, binding Zannat to the spot.

  Link was shocked, there was only one person here who could have done anything close to that. His eyes went back to Zyte, and he felt his jaw drop.

  Zyte had miraculously managed to get up on one knee. While one arm steadied her against the floor the other was stretched out toward Zannat. Her face turned slightly pained as she shakily stood up, her hand still outstretched. Closing her eyes shadows started to swarm around both her and Zannat, enveloping them both in darkness.

  For a brief moment nothing happened, then the clump of shadows where Zyte had stood starting growing, forming a mirror image of Zannat. Both groups of shadows suddenly burst forward. Zannat stumbled forward, shaking his head as if trying to clear it. The black dragon snarled and glared over at Zyte, now in a dragon form as well. At first Zyte's form didn't seem to differ from Zannat's, but then she took a step forward into the light and the tips of her scales glowed the maroon color of dried blood.

  "You will pay for that shadow twister!" he roared, and lunged forward.

  Zyte twisted her massive bulk to avoid his attack and slapped his face with a wing, the claws leaving trails of blood streaming down his face. Zannat struck out with his own wing in retaliation, but just as it neared Zyte's side it was hit with another ice arrow, Link was not about to let Zyte do all the fighting.

  Zyte flashed Link a toothy smile, "Thanks for the assist."

  "Anytime." Link quickly dodged as another stream of fire was shot at him. He snatched another arrow from his quiver and let it fly, this one hitting Zannat right at the base of his neck. Zyte quickly stepped in with a swipe of her claws, leaving a large wound in Zannat's side.

  Zannat stepped backward, his wounds painful. That boy was really starting to tic him off, and how dare that girl copy the form his master had given him. A sudden thought in his mind, he silently drew fire into the back of his throat and lunged head on toward the girl. Rearing up on his back legs he slashed both his arms toward her chest, she would have no choice but to block both. The girl, rearing up as well, caught his claws in her own, and they were both locked in claw to claw combat. Out of the corner of his eye Zannat saw the boy taking aim with yet another of those accursed arrows.

  He smirked, flames licking the edge of his mouth, "say goodbye to your little friend shadow twister." He twisted his head around to face the boy and let the flame loose, with the girl occupied with him and the boy about to fire, he wouldn't get away.

  "Link!" Smacking Zannat in the face again with her wing Zyte wrenched her claws from his and propelled herself forward, hoping she could get there in time.

  Link was shocked at first when the flames came streaming toward him. Fumbling with his bow he freed a hand to cast Nayru's Love, even though he wasn't sure he could cast it in time. A massive shape suddenly appeared in front of him, taking the full force of the flames. The stench of charred flesh was soon heavy in the air and the shape shuddered, slumping to the ground with a moan of pain.

  Across the room the black dragon laughed, "foolish children are no match for Zannat."

  Link felt rage begin to boil up in him, Zyte had just put herself through more pain to save him, and Zannat was enjoying the fact she was in pain.

  "Link." Zyte whispered.

  "I'm here."

  "I don't think I can last much longer, this might be our last chance to stop him. I going to grab him and hold him as still as I can, fire an arrow right in his forehead, put as much power as you can into it."

  "Will do, be careful though."

  Zyte staggered back to her feet, "No promises," she whispered, and lunged forward. Zannat, not expecting this sudden attack, didn't have time to move out of the way as Zyte rammed into him, pinning him to the ground.

  "Now!"

  Link let one more arrow fly, pouring power into it as he did. The arrow soared through the air and struck Zannat right in his forehead. Zannat roared in pain, throwing Zyte off of him as he staggered around the room in agony. Zyte bounded forward again and released a jet of flame right in his face.

  Zannat stood still for a moment, his mouth still open in a scream of pain, before toppling backward, reducing a number a statues to rubble. Then the dragon's form began to fade away, like smoke into air, leaving in its place the black gerahk.

  Zyte rumbled a sigh of relief and slumped to the floor, resting her head on the ground. In less than a blink of an eye Leyann was hovering in front of Zyte's face. But far from comforting her, it looked as if she was scolding her.

  Wondering what this was about Link cautiously walked over, catching the end of what Leyann was saying.

  "-be so stupid? You know what happens when you're that hurt when you shadow twist."

  Zyte gave a low chuckle, "better to die fighting than waiting for it to come." That being said Zyte closed her eyes, her massive form shivering slightly.

  *Something's wrong,* Link thought, *that burn wasn't bad enough to hurt her like this, and Zannat didn't land any other blows, so why is she hurt so badly?*

  A shadow suddenly detached itself from Zyte's wing and fell to the floor, evaporating as it hit the stone. After that another fell, and another, but it wasn't like the way Zyte changed back from her other forms, when she did that her entire body was covered with shadows, now they were falling away individually.

  "Leyann, what's happening to her?"

  "She no longer has the strength to keep up that form, she doesn't even have the strength to change back, so the shadows are leaving on their own accord, taking with them what little strength Zyte has left."

  The dragon continued to get paler and paler before starting to turn translucent. Link could start to see Zyte standing within the remaining shadows. As the last few melted away Zyte was left standing on the floor, several of the more severe cuts had healed along with the gash on her wing. Zyte started to lean forward, unable to stand any longer. Without even thinking Link rushed forward, catching her before she could fall.

  "Come on Zyte, don't black out on me."

  "Sorry." she murmured, "for not paying closer attention to my surroundings."

  Link couldn't believe his ears, Zyte was apologizing for something he had failed to do. "Zyte, you're too nice for your own good sometimes."

  Zyte gave a sad sort of smile, "can't help it, way I was raised."

  Link chuckled, "one of these days it's going to backfire on you."

  Zyte was silent at this, but her eyes suddenly flicked open. "The stone, we have to destroy the stone."

  "Stone? What stone?"

  "The one on the platform, we have to destroy it." Link finally noticed the pool of water on the opposite side of the room, along with the shimmering stone on its pedestal. "Before the Dark Soarans attacked, Zannat asked me if I had any last requests, I asked him to tell me what that stone was and what it was used for. It's a soul stone, it holds the captured souls of every Light Soarans that has been turned into a Dark Soaran. If the stone is destroyed the souls will be released, the Dark Soarans will get their souls back, they won't be mindless killers anymore. We must destroy it to free the Dark Soarans."

  "That, I'm afraid, is something I cannot let you do."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Criticisms?

Post them in a review or an e-mail to me and I'll see what I can do.


	12. Tears of Stone

Scruff, to answer your questions, ideas - I have a very active imagination, as in sometimes I will just sit around and think of stuff. As for names, some I make up, and others I get from a wonderful fantasy name generator, courtesy of rinkworks.com. I'll even give you guys a link to it, http :// www .rinkworks .com /namegen/ copy, paste, remove the spaces, try it out, it's really useful when you're stuck trying to think up names.

Anyway… *Sigh* You people are going to hate me at the end of this chapter. Why? Cause it's the last one. And it kinda leads up to the sequel I plan on doing.

Legal stuff: The Legend of Zelda and its characters belong to Nintendo, not to me. Self-made characters however, do belong to me, so no copying.

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  That voice… It chilled Zyte's blood. She quickly turned her head to face its source. The speaker turned out to be a Light Soaran, but there was something off about him, a terrible feeling of malice and evil that seemed to radiate from him, clinging to him like some foul odor.

  This evil Soaran had an unearthly feeling to him, holes seemed to open up in his skin periodically, like his wasn't quite all flesh and blood. He was clothed entirely in black, a cape-like coat trimmed with red flared out from his waist while a high collar was bordered by a pair of silver shoulder plates. The wings folded against his back were so dark black they almost seemed blue, and a long slender sword that was clearly meant for speed and maneuverability rather then power hung at his waist. Locks of long silvery hair hung down either side of his face. The Soaran stared at Zyte, his seemingly unnatural aquamarine eyes deep and calculating, almost like he was looking right into her soul.

  "You see, even if you did free the souls of my Soarans it would do little good, very few have survived their captivity in that crystal, even if they did find their way back to their bodies I'm afraid only the most powerful would have memories of their lives remaining."

  "Who are you?" Link asked, a dangerous flicker in his eyes as he shifted his weight slightly to better support Zyte.

  The Soaran turned his eyes to Link, a look a mock sweetness on his face, "ah yes, how could I have been so rude as not to introduce myself?" He crossed an arm in front of his chest and bowed, "my name is Dracken, also known as the Dark User of Shadows to my fellow Soarans." As he rose he turned his eyes back toward Zyte, "you have no idea how long I have waited for you my dear Zyte."

  Link felt Zyte shiver as Dracken said her name, this was bad, even he could feel the evil being emanated from the Soaran.

  "Master…"

  All eyes went to the floor where a weak looking Zannat was cowering before Dracken.

  "Zannat, I'm surprised you're still alive."

  "Master, please, I didn't mean to lose, please give me another chance."

  "This was your last chance Zannat, I told you that before, and you assured me that you wouldn't fail."

  "Master, please don't…"

  "Goodbye Zannat."

  Dracken raised a hand as Zannat took flight, who was clearly trying to flee for his very life. But just as he left the floor the hand closed around his neck, Dracken's irises started to glow slightly. Zannat started to scream, an unearthly wailing screech that filled the room before he turned to dust. Dracken's eyes faded back to their regular blue and the holes in his skin stopped appearing. Opening his hand to discard the dust that had remained Dracken took in a deep breath before smirking.

  "I didn't realize how much I missed the feeling of blood flowing through my veins."

  "You're sick," Link spat, unable to keep his temper after witnessing that spectacle.

  Dracken chuckled, "now you've gone and hurt my feelings."

  "Screw your feelings, I doubt you even have any."

  Dracken leveled his eyes with Link's, a flicker of annoyance in his gaze. "Now that's not true, I still feel, after all, isn't vengeance a feeling? What about a need for revenge? Or pain? You can't tell me those aren't feelings."

  Link suddenly felt Zyte push away from him, struggling to stand on her own. Shaking slightly from the effort she closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath to steady herself. Reopening them she looked up at Dracken. 

  "Tell me Dracken, what exactly do you want with me? It seems you have quite a bit of power, why bother using people like Zannat and Akkao to do your dirty work when you could just as easily come and get me yourself?"

  The smirk was wiped off Dracken's face. "And exactly why should I tell you that my dear?"

  "Consider it a last request, since you seem all too keen to kill anything that stands in your way," she paused to wipe away a small trickle of blood that had slid down her face from the cut on her forehead, "and that no doubt includes me."

  "Very well, this all started when the rest of our wonderful race found out I was a Shadow Twister. Of course all those wonderful people decided I was a threat and started thinking of ways to get rid of me…"

  Link flicked his gazed over at Zyte as Dracken continued to prattle on like the egotistical maniac he was, Zyte had said the last part like she didn't care to live anymore. That frankly had startled him, considering that the few days he had known Zyte she had really seemed to be enjoying both her life and her newfound friendship with him, something wasn't right.

  Zyte caught his stare and gave the slightest shake of her head, her eyes telling him to wait.

  What the…? Link quickly tapped into one of his abilities he hadn't used in a very long time.

  "Zyte! What in the name of Din do you think you're doing?"

  Link saw Zyte's eyes widen in shock before narrowing suspiciously as she got his telepathic message. Her gaze darted over towards him.

  "Yeah, it's me, what are we doing just standing here? He wants to kill you for crying out loud!"

  Zyte flicked her eyes over toward the platform holding the still glowing stone.

  "Are you crazy? You heard Dracken, it's pointless."

  Zyte gave a slight shake of her head and mouthed 'important' before flicking her eyes down to her hand. Following her gaze Link's eyes alighted on the several light blue gems gleaming in the spaces between Zyte's fingers.

  "A distraction?"

  Zyte gave a small nod before mouthing 'you' and gently nodding her head in the direction of the stone.

  Link's eyes widened as he understood. "There is no way I'm letting you fight him, you get the stone, I'll distract him."

  Zyte shook her head, 'he wants me.'

  "But-"

  "And that, my dear Zyte, is where you come into the picture. Those fools that trapped me here were smart enough to place an enchantment to keep me from escaping, or more accurately, to keep this form from escaping." Dracken's smirk widened, "for once I absorb your shadow twisting ability I'll be able to leave this retched place and start some true terror." He unsheathed the sword hung at his waist. "Now it is time for you to die." This final statement caused Dracken to leap toward Zyte, his sword outstretched and a dangerous glimmer in his eyes.

  "Just do it Link!" Zyte shouted as she raised her hand. Sending the crystals crashing to the ground a thick fog immediately covered the area, reducing visibility to only a few feet in front of them.

  Link huffed in frustration, this was insane, completely and utterly insane, what was Zyte thinking? He started running toward the platform, hoping that whatever she was planning wouldn't end up in her getting killed.

  Zyte knew she had to be quick, this fog wouldn't last forever, she just had to distract Dracken long enough for Link to destroy that stone, without it Dracken wouldn't be able to hold the souls of any other Light Soarans until he could find a replacement. And unless Zyte was mistaken those stones were extremely hard to come by, she was at least delaying the transformation of any more Light Soarans until they realized that Dracken was a threat.

  But first she needed to stay alive, and for that she needed her swords.

  She knew she wouldn't be able to go scrounging around looking for her swords with Dracken looking for her, she needed to draw him away from her. Her shield suddenly bumped against a rather tender wound on her back and she gritted her teeth to keep from crying out. An idea blossomed in her head. In one deft motion she grabbed the shield from her back and threw it as hard as she could, hearing it knock loudly into one of the statues. Zyte quickly turned and hurried in the opposite direction, her eyes scanning the floor for her swords.

  Zyte suddenly saw one, racing toward it she swiftly scooped it off the floor, this was the one Sillis had given her, it was hard to believe it had received it only yesterday. Zyte suddenly saw her second sword, the blade her father had used in his final moments to protect her. The fog was thinning out, she had to hurry. Sheathing the first she raced to the second. Just as she grabbed it Dracken materialized out of the fog like a vision from some nightmarish dream.

  "Now I have you."

  Zyte barely brought her sword up in time to block. Her arms started to shake from the pressure Dracken was putting on her sword. He suddenly pulled back and tried to get in a quick slash to her side. Zyte had to jump backward to dodge it, but she did. Dracken started to attack with flurries of blows, in her weakened state all Zyte could do was dodge and block, and he left no room to launch an offensive attack. By now the fog had dissipated, leaving Zyte with no cover even if she could get away. Aiming an attack at her chest Zyte brought up her sword to block once again, this time instead pulling back the blade Dracken continued to exert pressure on her sword, it was a losing battle, sooner or later Zyte's muscles would simply give out from pure exhaustion, but until that time she would continue to fight for all she was worth. Dracken was so close know she could she his chest rise as each new breath entered his lungs, so close she could see the glimmer of revenge in his eyes, so close she could see that he was nowhere close to being winded, let alone tired. Here they were, each locked in combat, him looking like he could fight forever and her being dangerously close to collapse.

  "Hey Dracken!"

  Both sets of eyes flicked away from each other and toward the platform.

  Link was standing next to the pedestal, soul stone in hand. Raising the arm that held the stone Link threw it to the ground with such force that it shattered, chips flying everywhere. From the rubble several tiny gold colored lights emerged, freed souls. They hovered for a moment before each vanished in a blink of light.

  "No!"

  Zyte smirked, she could feel her muscles weakening, straining to keep the deadly blade way from her face. "They are free now Dracken."

  Dracken turned his face back to her, a sneer on his lips and his face contorted with rage. Without warning he suddenly pulled his blade away from her. Zyte had not been expecting this, and being too weak to correct it, stumbled forward. In one swift movement Dracken plunged his sword forward, the blade piercing all the way through the fleshy part of her shoulder, blood began to seep from the wound, staining her tunic crimson.

  "Zyte!"

  Zyte's breath caught in her throat, her knees felt weak, her vision began to swim, she had never known such pain. She felt her grip on her sword loosening, her knees no longer could hold her weight, she felt herself fall to her knees on the ground, her mind reeling. Suddenly she felt Dracken's hand cup around her chin, forcing her gaze upward.

  "Now you die."

  The pain increased tenfold, she was blinded by it, her body and mind screaming in agony.

  *No more pain, please, just let me die,* she pleaded in her mind.

  She suddenly heard an anguished cry from Dracken. The pain subsided and the sword was forcibly wrenched from her shoulder. Zyte quickly stiffened an arm against the ground to prevent herself from falling on her face. Trying vainly to stop the blood pouring from her wound Zyte pressed her other hand against it, weakly lifting her gaze to see what had happened.

  Dracken was standing off to the side, his sword held out in a defensive position, blood was dripping from a long slash on his shoulder. Standing in front of him was a Dark Soaran, its claws held out in a menacing fashion while its tail twitched in annoyance.

  "Keep your hands off my daughter you filth," the Soaran spat.

  Time seemed to stop, it couldn't be, could it?

  "Father?" Zyte murmured.

  "Yes Zyte," the Soaran answered, he sidestepped slightly to stand in front of her while still facing Dracken. "Just stay right there, I won't let this beast hurt you."

  This being said her father launched himself at Dracken, claws spread, ready to slash the life out of him. Dracken managed to dodge the claws, but not his tail. The blade cut a deep gash down his arm and sent blood streaming to the ground in a sickening splatter. Claw fought steel, and claw was winning. Another silvery glint of steel suddenly showed itself, opening a cut on Dracken's face. Link had joined the fray, attacking and blocking with skills unmatched by anything Zyte had seen so far.

  Zyte could feel her strength waning, it was all she could do to keep her head up. Unconsciously she moved her hand slightly, trying to better support herself, and in doing so brushed against a fragment of the soul stone. She suddenly found herself watching a memory, a memory from very long ago, a memory of Dracken's execution.

  An unconscious Dracken was slumped on a cloud top, his arms and wings bound, and bleeding slightly from a cut on his arm. Another Light Soaran, his arm also cut, was holding a lyre. A look of stern acceptance lined his face as he closed his eyes and began to play.

  The tune, it seemed so familiar, then it hit Zyte, the song he was playing was the Srelo ye Osyxr.

  He plucked one last note and opened his eyes, looking at Dracken with distain. Dracken's body suddenly started turning to stone, bit by bit flesh changing color and hardening. Soon he was completely transformed, a statue surrounded by a sea of white. The Light Soaran suddenly sighed, lowering his arms and head, he to was starting to turn to stone. As the last bit of his flesh faded so did the memory, leaving Zyte eyeing Dracken in a whole new light. Yet even as she watched them fight the words of the prophecy echoed in her mind.

  _When the dark is betrayed by one of its own_

Her father leapt toward Dracken, claws flashing dangerously as they neared his target.

  _And blood has been shed by both sides_

Claws bit into Dracken's side while he was distracted by a slash from Link, red once more rained to the ground.

  _Tears of stone will fall, sealing both light and dark away from the world_

  Dracken slashed at Link, who in turn dodged and retaliated.

  _For only when light has sealed itself away will the darkness be contained_

  Link's blow was blocked and pushed away by Dracken.

  _Srelo ye Osyxr_

  Dracken slashed his sword in a wide arc in front of him, causing both her father and Link to retreat backward.

  _Tears of Stone_

  Zyte knew what she had to do. Getting to her feet she reached into the pouch at her belt and brought out her ocarina.

  "Dracken."

  All eyes turned to look at her.

  "If I must give up my life to prevent you from taking another," she lifted the ocarina to her lips, "then I will gladly do so."

  With that Zyte began to play, pouring her soul into every note. Dracken's eyes widened with fear.

  "No!" He tried to move forward, only his legs were already turning to stone. Link and her father backed away as the stone continued to creep up his legs, quickly moving up to his torso. Dracken's eyes blazed with anger. "This isn't over my dear, I will kill you someday, that I promise you!" The last bit of Dracken to change were his eyes, still blazing hatred at Zyte even as he turned to stone.

  Zyte lowered the ocarina, her strength next to nothing. She felt her knees start to give way again.

  Her father suddenly rushed forward, grabbing her by her shoulders before she could fall. Her cupped her hands in his and stared into her eyes.

  "My darling Zyte, look how much you've grown. You're as pretty as your mother, I missed you so much."

  "Even though I'm a Shadow Twister?"

  "Shadow Twister or not, you're still my daughter, and that is all that matters to me."

  Zyte squeezed her father's claw, "That means more to me then you could believe father," she leaned forward and rested her head on their intertwined hands. "You have no idea how much I missed you."

  Zyte suddenly took a deep breath like she was in pain and wrenched her hands away from her father, stumbling backward and away from the both of them.

  "Zyte! What's wrong?" Link exclaimed, moving closer toward her.

  Zyte didn't move, her head was lowered and eyes were closed.

  "Zyte?" The tone of her father's voice was extremely fearful.

  Zyte lifted her head and open her eyes. She gave them both a sad sort of smile, her feet started to turn to stone. Zyte curled the hand still clutching her ocarina to her chest. "I wish I could stay, but I can't." She turned her face to look at Link. "I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise Link, you have been a true friend." The stone moved up past her chest, Zyte closed her eyes. "Thank you." The last bit of her face turned to stone. A single tear slid down her cheek and fell silently to the ground.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would like to thank all of my wonderful reviewers, without all of you and all of your wonderful support I wouldn't have been able to keep going.

Hadikosa

Lilandra

Lady Storm

Aquarius-Gal

Tari Ikado

parry

GuruGuru214

Duorden

daniel

Great Divide

Master Tookie

magicsprite

Seveawen

dan heron

Sycogerl64

Dream][Walker3

scruff13

Erinamation-limited2-nothing

Navi* Star*

Remember, I'm planning on doing a sequel, I not telling you guys anything about it except that it happens after Wind Waker. Keep your eyes out for it. Or, better yet, if anyone wants I can e-mail them a link when I post the sequel, just leave your e-mail address in a review saying you want me to and as soon as I post it I'll send you a link^_^

Zyte


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